118 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



tion, but there appeared little if any decrease iu the numbers. The spot could be easily distin- 

 guished from the rest of the bottom by the absence of the tree-like stems of liydrozoa. On the 

 26th only two of the dories succeeded iu setting on this spot, and these two got fish, while the 

 others failed. The attempt to bring the vessel nearer failed so utterly that the trawls did not touch 

 the spot again. 1,700 fish had been caught in four days on a spot not a mile square. I am inclined 

 to think that as fast as some were caught their places were filled by new arrivals, and were it not 

 for the gurry, a vessel once anchored iu a favorable position would not have to move until a load 

 had been secured. 



But, it will be asked, will this gurry permanently injure the fishing ! Probably not. There 

 are many carnivorous animals, besides the little shrimp already spoken of, which would soon eat 

 up everything except the bones of the fish, and it is hard to see what harm these can do. Never- 

 theless, there does seem to be some effect produced by the fishing of one year upon the abundance 

 of the fish in the same place the succeeding years; for the fishermen complain that the halibut off 

 the coasts of New England, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland must be sought in deeper and deeper 

 water year after year. If this be so, it is hard of explanation. For, if we consider the halibut as 

 of a roving disposition, why should they- shun their former haunts because they have been fished 

 on, or if, on the other hand, they are not rovers, how can they, considering their great fecundity, 

 be so easily exterminated, as their disappearance from these haunts would imply? 



Their fecundity must be very great. In a fish about C feet in length I calculated the ovary 

 had 2,782,425 eggs. This was done by counting the number of eggs in a straight row an inch 

 long and from this finding how many there were in a cubic inch. The number of cubic inches in 

 one of the boxes in which the codfish hooks came was calculated and the box filled with eggs. 

 These eggs were then weighed. The whole mass of eggs was next put on the scales and their 

 weight divided by the weight of one cubic inch, to ascertain the number of cubic inches of eggs. 

 This result, multiplied by the number of eggs in one cubic inch, would give the number of eggs in 

 the whole ovary. The estimate may be too large, though J cannot conceive how any error so great 

 as to make the number less than two millions could have crept in. I do not know whether all these 

 eggs would have been laid at one time or not, but as they appeared to be nearly of the same size I 

 judge that such would probably have been the case. 



There was no way of determining accurately at what stage of the tide the fish were the most 

 voracious, but they appeared to take the bait best the latter part of the stronger tide, for it was 

 then that the hand-line was most successful, and the men expected the best luck with the trawls. 



Though the fish are of the same species as those caught on the Grand Bank, nothing was. 

 found in them, in the shape of hooks or food, indicative of a migration from any other place. 



August 5th I made several observations upon the temperature, of the rectum of the halibut, 

 when they were first taken by the hand-line, and found, with one exception, the temperature to 

 be 39 Fahr. These observations were made within an hour or two of the time the temperature 

 of the bottom was taken. The exception referred to was where one halibut showed a temperature 

 of 39 Fahr., half a degree higher than the others. 



The food of the fish was different for different places and times. Where we first fished it was 

 composed of crabs and other Crustacea, with now and then a fish of the genus Cycloptems. But 

 when we shifted to a spot 20 miles or so south of this, we found some of the species of Crustacea 

 had disappeared, and the principal source of food was a small fish called "lant." There was also 

 a great diiference in the condition of the fish in these two places, those of the last place being far 

 better and more vigorous. The males were above six to one female in the first place, whereas the 



