HALIBUT FISHIXG. 149 



the certainty of drowning. I would have given 

 much to have stood up ; but no ; if I only moved 

 on one side to peep over, a sudden yell from 

 the steersman, accompanied by a flourish of the 

 braining-club mildly admonitory, no doubt, but 

 vastly significant ensured instant obedience. I 

 forgot cold, wet, and fright, and indeed every- 

 thing but the all-absorbing excitement attend- 

 ant on this ocean-chase. The skill and tact of un- 

 educated men, pitted against a huge sea-monster 

 of tenfold strength, was a sight a lover of sport 

 would travel any distance to witness. 



Slowly and steadily the sturdy paddlers worked 

 towards the shore, towing the fish, but keeping 

 the canoe stern-first, so as to be enabled to pay 

 out line and follow him, should he suddenly grow 

 restive : in this way the Indians gradually coaxed 

 the flat monster towards the beach ; a weak, 

 powerless, exhausted giant, outwitted, captured, 

 and subdued, prevented from diving into his deep- 

 sea realms by, what were to him, anything but 

 life-buoys. We beached him at last, and he yielded 

 his life to the knife and club of the redskin. 



I believe the species to be the Pleuronectes 

 liippoglossus of Linna3us, but of this I am by no 

 means perfectly clear, as I had only an opportu- 

 nity of examining this single specimen, that I es- 

 timated as weighing over 300 Ibs. ; and it was 



