424 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



ber of attempts with the same result the mate gave up the chase. The 

 fish* then went leisurely on his course dowu toward the island, and we 

 went off another way on ours. I have often mentioned this incident 

 to whalemen who had spent years in cruising along the line, but have 

 not met one who had seen anything similar. 



I have heard of a "sail-fish," and supposed that this must have been 

 one of that species, whatever that may be. Also, I had on board an 

 edition of Chambers' Encyclopedia, which described the "sail-fish" as a 

 kind of shark. 



Last winter I was running to westward along the line in the Pacific 

 and in February was at "Ocean Island," or "Paanopay'a small lone is- 

 land 40 miles south of the line, in east longitude 170°. 



There we were boarded by several canoes, and from one I procured 

 parts of a fish that possibly may have been of the same kind as the one 

 at Chatham Island. But this was some kind of a fish with a bill. Now 

 we quite often see a kind of bill -fish, but never with such large dorsal 

 fins as these. I imagine that this must have been a small specimen. 

 I brought home the parts 1 was able to procure. The bill is twenty 

 inches in length, cut off close to the head. I have only a part of the 

 dorsal fin, and not in good condition. The longest spines are thirty 

 inches long, and there is a little more than three feet of the fin. The 

 membrane between the spines is badly torn. This membrane is quite 

 thin. There arc also two pectoral fins. 



Now, this may have been quite a different fish from the one I saw 

 first, but it struck me as being a smaller one of the same kind, and I 

 have quite a curiosity to ascertain what is known of similar fishes. 



Nashua, N. H., January, 1882. 



81.— F1TTI1VC OUT WETII COD C5II.I.-IVETS. 



By S. J. MAKTIN. 



[From ;i letter to A. H. Clark. ] 



Most all the Ipswich Bay fleet are getting cod gill-nets; there are ten 

 that I know of from Gloucester. They have got some at Swampscott, 

 some at Portsmouth. Some of them are having their nets 2 fathoms 

 deep and 75 fathoms long; I think that is an improvement in shoal 

 water. The nets have made a great stir here. Joe Simpson, Frank 

 Maker, and Bill Coas, net-makers of Gloucester, are at work on cod 

 gill-nets. Some of the vessels won't get their nets till the last of Feb- 

 ruary. There are ten vessels that will average twenty-four nets to a 

 vessel. Average length, CO fathoms. That is for Gloucester alone. 



Gloucester, Mass., January 28, 1881. 



"Dr. T. II. Bean Nays of this: "It seems highly probable from Captain Barnes' de- 

 scription that the fish was a Histiophorus. The genus is found in the region referred 

 to."— Editor. 



