372 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



The anal (42 to 48 rays) is only about half as high and slightly more than half as 

 long as the dorsal and its rear corner is angular. The pectorals are large and rounded 

 and the caudal slightly convex in outline. 



Color. — Wolffishes are always dull colored but vary widely in tint. The upper 

 parts and dorsal fins of those taken off the Massachusetts coast have been described 

 as purplish brown and we have seen them of this tint, but according to Mr. Clapp 

 fish caught on Georges Bank are invariably dull olive green, while in other seas 

 they are described as purplish, brownish, or bluish gray, or as slate colored. No 

 doubt the color of the wolf, like that of many other ground fish, varies with that of 

 its surroundings, purplish and brown tints ruling among red seaweeds and olive 

 gray on clean bottoms. Whatever its tint, its sides are transversely barred with 

 a variable number (usually 10 or more) of irregular and broken darker bands or 

 blotches or scattered spots that extend out on the dorsal fin. The throat and the 

 belly back to the vent are dirty white tinged with the general ground tint of the 

 upper parts. Wolffish fade so soon after they are caught that those seen in the 

 markets are usually much paler than they are in life. 



Size. — A length of 5 feet and a weight of approximately 30 pounds seems about the 

 maximum in Gulf of Maine waters, and one more than 4 feet long is seldom seen, the 

 larger fish caught and brought in not running over 3 feet. European authors, it 

 is true, speak of wolffish of 6 feet and even longer, but they average only about 2 

 feet in Scandinavian waters, 34 hardly as large as in the Gulf of Maine. 



General range. — Both sides of the North Atlantic, north to Davis Strait and south 

 regularly to Cape Cod, more rarely to southern New England, and exceptionally 

 to New Jersey in American waters. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Although the wolffish has been recorded from 

 but few definite stations 35 in scientific literature, it is actually a fairly common fish 

 in the Gulf, though hardly to be described as abundant, and is to be caught very 

 generally on suitable bottom in all parts of the Gulf though nowhere in any great 

 numbers. Thus it is taken regularly at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy (not listed in 

 the Canadian fishery statistics, however) and about Grand Manan. A few are yearly 

 brought in from off Mount Desert and from the other small fishing grounds between 

 Eastport and Penobscot Bay, larger numbers are taken off the islands from Penob- 

 scot Bay to Casco Bay (the catch by the shore fishermen of this part of the coast 

 aggregated nearly 23,000 pounds in 1902), but the most productive grounds for 

 Maine are off Casco Bay, whence no less than 29,829 pounds were brought in by 

 small boats in 1919, 17,700 pounds in 1905, and 146,700 pounds in 1902. More or 

 less catfish, as most fishermen call them, are also caught on hand and trawl lines along 

 the eoast southward to Massachusetts Bay. In the year 1905, for example, small- 

 boat fishermen landed 16,000 pounds between Cape Elizabeth and the New Hamp- 

 shire line, and over 37,000 pounds in Essex County, Mass., most of the latter coming 

 from Jeffreys Ledge and Stellwagen Bank and from the deeper rocky spots near 

 Gloucester and Nahant, grounds where fishermen report them as fairly plentiful 

 but running smaller than on Georges Bank. 



" Smitt. Scandinavian Fishes, 1892, p. 232. 



» The North Channel, off Cape Sable, in St. Mary Bay, at Grand Manan, at Campobello, mouth of the Bay of Fundy, 

 Eastport, Mussel Ridge Channel, Casco Bay, Ipswich Bay, Annisquanj, off Gloucester, Massachusetts Bay, North Truro, 

 Nantucket Shoals, and Georges Bank. 



