3 1 o AMERICAN FISHES. 



food. The average size of a full-grown female is somewhat between one 

 hundred and one hundred and fifty pounds, though they are sometimes 

 much heavier. Capt. Collins, who has had many years' experience in the 

 Gloucester Halibut fishery, assures me that he has never seen one which 

 would weigh over two hundred and fifty pounds, and that one weighing 

 over two hundred and fifty pounds is considered large. There are, how- 

 ever, well-authenticated instances of their attaining greater dimensions. 

 Capt. Atwood, in a communication to the Boston Society of Natural 

 History, in 1S64, stated that the largest he had ever taken weighed, when 

 dressed, two hundred and thirty-seven pounds, and would probably have 

 weighed three hundred pounds as taken from the water. In Tuly, 1S79, 

 however, the same reliable observer saw at Provincetown two individuals 

 taken near Race Point, one of which weighed three hundred and fifty-nine 

 pounds (three hundred and two pounds when dressed), the other, four 

 hundred and one pounds (three hundred and twenty-two pounds when 

 dressed). 



There is a tradition in Boston that Mr. Anthony Holbrook, one of the 

 early fish dealers of that city, had in his possession a Halibut, taken at 

 New Ledge, sixty miles southeast of Portland, which weighed over six 

 hundred pounds. This story, which is recorded by Storer in his " Fishes 

 of Massachusetts," Capt. Atwood believes to be untrue. Halibut, weigh- 

 ing from three to four hundred pounds, though unusual in comparison 

 with the ordinary size, are by no means rare. I have before me a record 

 of ten or twelve such, captured on the New England coast during the past 

 ten years. Nilsson, a Swedish ichthyologist, has mentioned the capture 

 of a Halibut on that coast which weighed seven hundred and twenty 

 pounds. There are stories of Halibut ten feet in length : a fish weighing 

 three hundred and fifty pounds is between seven and eight feet long and 

 nearly four feet in width. The largest individuals are not considered 

 nearly so good for table use as those of less than one hundred pounds' 

 weight. A fat female of eighty pounds, is by good judges, considered to 

 be in the highest state of perfection. Males are not, however, so highly 

 esteemed. Small Halibut, known as " Chicken Halibut," ranging from 

 ten to twenty pounds, are much sought after by epicures, and bring a high 

 price in the New York and Boston markets. They are comparatively 

 rare however, and a Halibut weighing ten pounds or less is rarely seen ; 

 the smallest recorded on our coast was about five inches in length and was 

 taken by Prof. Verrill in a dredge-net in the Straits of Canso. 



