464 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



icaii vessels might, by going there, make far more profitable voyages 

 for flitches than they are liable to make on the west coast of Greenland. 



Bearing this in mind, and considering it important to obtain as much 

 knowledge of practical value to American fishermen as possible, I 

 took every occasion while in Loudon, in the summer of 1883, to gather 

 additional testimony on this subject, from both the fishermen and ves- 

 sel owners that visited the Fisheries Exhibition. Several of the latter 

 had once been fishermen. Those with whom I conversed relative to this 

 matter were among the most reliable and intelligent men of the class 

 to which they belong. There was, too, such a remarkable similarity in 

 the statements, each individual telling the same story, of the almost 

 marvelous abundance of halibut about Iceland, that I felt certain that 

 so many experienced fishermen could not all be mistaken or misled re- 

 garding a fish with which they are so familiar. Several told me that 

 on some occasions they have been obliged to stop fishing for cod owing 

 to the great numbers of halibut on the banks, since these fish were of 

 no value to them, and actually proved a nuisance by destroying their 

 gear. The Grimsby vessels which go to Iceland are welled smacks — 

 local!}' known as " Codmen" — that fish with hand-lines for cod and ling, 

 salting their catch until a few days before their departure from the fish- 

 ing ground. The fish taken during the last two or three days' fishing 

 are put in the well and kept alive for sale at the home port, the salted 

 cod usually being sold at Faroe Islands. 



I felt so sure of the correctness of the information I had obtained 

 relative to the abundance of halibut at Iceland, that, while at Glou- 

 cester last winter, I called the attention of several })arties to the mat- 

 ter, who were either fishermen or interested in the fisheries. Among 

 others, I gave to Capt. John Dago a detailed statement of what I had 

 learned from the English fishermen. In previous years Captain Dago 

 had made several trips to Greenland for flitched halibut, and I have 

 recently learned that, acting on the information I gave him, he has gone 

 to Iceland this summer. Another schooner, the Alice M. Williams, 

 from the firm of D. C. & H. Babson, of this city, has also gone on the 

 same voyage. The question of the abundance of halibut at Iceland will 

 be pretty definitely settled by the result of their cruises. Nothing defi- 

 nite has yet been learned of the success of these two vTSsels, but had 

 they not met with a reasonably fair prosi)ect for making a good catch, 

 it is probable they would have been home before this. 



If they meet with good success, a new field will be o[)ened up to the 

 enterprise of our fishermen, which at thits time is of special importance 

 owing to the scarcity of halibut on the banks, and the difficulties at- 

 tending a voyage to Davis Straits. 



I shall acquaint you with the result of those experimental trips when 

 the vessels return home and the facts are made available, I have much 

 confidence in a favorable issue. 



Gloucester, Mass., Avgust 16, 1884.. 



