BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 41 



pounds of cured fisli, direct from the several fishing-grouuds, against 

 4,567,700 for the corresponding month of 1884. The Grand Banks fleet 

 have nearly all returned, bringing full fares. The amount landed at 

 Gloucester bj- the Kew England shore fleet, 235,135 pounds, is a large 

 increase over the corresponding month last year, in which only 82,700 

 pounds was landed. The catch on George's Bank was light, caused 

 largely by want of good fresh bait. The amount landed during the 

 month was 1,964,000 pounds, as agaiust2,735,000 pounds in October, 1884. 



Halibut receipts at Gloucester during October, 1885,742,170 pounds; 

 during October, 1884, 729,000 pounds. 



The vessels that fished oft' Greenland and Iceland for halibut, with 

 one exception, have all returned. There having been much bad weather, 

 they took only partial fares. Schooner Alice M. Williams, of Gloucester, 

 after securing her trip, on September 5 struck a rock off the Iceland 

 coast and was soon a total wreck. The particulars, as given by the 

 Boston Post, for ]S"ovember 17, 1885, are as follows : 



" Capt. G. W. Pendleton, of the wrecked fishing schooner Alice M. 

 Williams, has just returned homo after a terrible experience of priva- 

 tion and hardship. 



"'We left Gloucester,' be began, ' the latter part of July for Iceland, 

 halibut fishing. We were the last of the fleet to start up for the season, 

 and we had a very good catch, so that by the first of September we 

 were nearly full with some of the finest fish I ever saw, and were about 

 ready to come home. We were, September 5, on the southwest coast 

 of Iceland, and about two miles from land, running before a brisk breeze, 

 when all at once the vessel struck hard and fast. The weather was 

 quite cold, and as the schooner struck on the rocks the seas made a clean, 

 breach over her. We launched our dories, saving some of our clothes 

 and all the ship's instruments and charts. 



"'The scene of the wreck was about two miles south of BildaU, and 

 the rock was not laid down on the chart. We pulled to Bildall, which 

 is a small Iceland town, composed of a series of mud huts, yelping dogs, 

 shaggy ponies, miserable men and women, and a small army of dirty 

 children. We could not get much to eat, for the jioor creatures had 

 very little for themselves, but we found that the only means of getting 

 out of the country was by traveling thirty miles over the snow-covered 

 mountains to a place called Thingyri, where, if we were expeditious, we 

 would be in time to catch the last steamer of the season for Scotland. 

 After a great deal of coaxing, threatening, and wrangling, I succeeded 

 in getting possession of a little Iceland pony not much bigger than a 

 rabbit, to the back of which I strapped the ship's instruments, and with 

 a guide, who wanted all the money I had for his services, we started on 

 a journey which, though not very long, proved to be one of the most 

 severe and uncomfortable I ever experienced. 



" ' We left Bildall early one morning and set out bravely for the high- 



