FRESH-HALIBUT FISHERY. 59 



Halibut have a remarkable habit of remaining 011 the spot which they have selected lor their 

 spawning ground, ami the natural result is that, when once a breeding-school is found, fare after 

 fare is caught at the same place, until the tish are so much reduced in numbers as to no longer 

 offer sufficient inducement to the fishermen to visit the locality. Sometimes, however, the fisher- 

 men lose so much gear on these spots, on account of the roughness of the bottom and other causes, 

 that after a few trips are made the area becomes so completely covered with old lines that it is 

 almost useless to set trawls, .since there is small chance of getting them back. This liability to 

 loss, especially after the fish have been broken up and no longer can be caught in large quantities, 

 compels the fishermen to resort to other localities. 



Where so many trawls are lost, of course the halibut that are on the hooks finally die and 

 decay, thus being destroyed without benefiting any one, but instead, it is believed that they 

 become, temporarily, an injury to the fishing grounds. 



As previously mentioned, these spots are almost always small, and the boundaries of the schools 

 of fish found in such places are so sharply defined that, although sometimes, as the fishermen express 

 it, " the fish are four tier deep on the spot," 100 fathoms either side of it few if any halibut can be 

 caught. 



It does not follow, as a matter of course, that halibut are found abundant in the same place two 

 seasons in succession, but the reverse is, perhaps, the rule, especially if many trips are caught in 

 any given locality the first season that it is resorted to. 



The following is a brief account of the results obtained on a few of these small areas, and which 

 will serve to illustrate what has been written above: 



In the summer of 187G, Captain Marktisou, in the schooner Notice, found one of these places 

 ou the Southwest Prong of Baiiquereau. It was so small that he could get only two trawls on it, 

 and those had to be set very close to each other. 



But the halibut were so abundant, according to two men who were with him at the time and 

 have sailed with me since, that on each of the two trawls which were on the right spot they 

 used to get six and seven dory-loads offish (about 1,500 pounds to a load) every time the gear was 

 hauled, while ou the other lines not more than two or three halibut, at most, were taken. After 

 making a few sets they marked the spot by anchoring buojs, thereafter running only two or three 

 trawls, instead of six (the full complement), and in this manner they caught a full fare. 



About July 2U, in the summer of 1S77, the schooners Sultana and Fitz J. Babson struck a large 

 school of halibut ou the Southwest Prong of Baiiquereau, in latitude 43 55' and longitude 58 45'. 

 The captain of the Sultana told me that the area covered by these fish was not more than three- 

 fourths of a mile in diameter, either way. Each of the above-named vessels caught a fare of 80,000 

 pounds of halibut at that place, and when they left their positions were taken by other vessels 

 the Chester R. Lawrence, Augusta H. Johnson, and another, the name of which I cannot now 

 recall. There were probably more than 300,000 pounds of halibut taken from this place. 



In the summer of 1878 halibut were found very plenty ou the western side of the Southwest 

 Prong of Baiiquereau, in latitude from 43 56' to 43 57', and longitude 58 55', dead reckoning. 

 The schooner Magic got a trip of 50,000 pounds there in July; returned again in August, but failed 

 to secure a full fan; on account of her windlass breaking, which compelled her to go home. She also 

 got 45,000 or 50,000 pounds there in September. We caught part of a trip (18,000 pounds) there in 

 July. The schooner William Thompson got 98,000 pounds there in August, and the schooner Lizzie 

 also caught part of a fare, about 40,000 pounds. On the same spot, and nearly at the same time, the 

 Davy Crockett got part of a trip there also, and several other vessels took more or less halibut at the 

 same place; but at last there was so much lost gear on the bottom that it did not pay to set trawls 



