256 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



fisheries in tbe river would give us at least 1,500 francs a year; total, 

 3,500 francs. This year we intend to place 2,500 two-year-old trout in 

 the lake, which will greatly increase the fishing ; and I hope that here 

 in a few years we shall put in the lake 5,000 or 6,000 a year, for I think 

 it can hold 20,000. We have much less mortality among the fry com- 

 ing from eggs obtained at Gouville than from those bought elsewhere, 

 for while the journey does not prevent hatching, it renders the fry more 

 delicate. I forgot to say to you that the trout in the lake have not re- 

 ceived special food for eighteen months, but have lived on insects, min- 

 nows, &c. This year we have had, including the foreign eggs, 100,000 

 fish hatched. 



69.— FISHING ON A1V EDGE OF THE GRAND BANKS. 



By Capt. J. W. COJLLIrYS. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baircl.] 



Capt. George A. Johnson, master of schooner Augusta H. Johnson, 

 who has just returned from a fresh-halibut trip to the Grand Banks, 

 tells me that he fished around the edges of the deep-water pocket on 

 the eastern side of the banks (in north latitude 44° 3'), which he re- 

 ported some time ago to the Hydrographic Office at Washington. 



A remarkable feature of the fishing in that region is the great abun- 

 dance of ground-sharks. So plentiful were these that Captain Johnson 

 could not leave his trawl-lines out over night, since, if he did, the sharks 

 would get on the hooks and destroy the gear by rolling up in the lines, 

 breaking them, &c. On one occasion his men caught and killed 40 

 sharks in one day, one dory getting 18 of them on its trawl. Many of 

 these sharks were of extraordinary size, the men reporting them to be 

 much longer than their dories. As a dory is more than 19 feet long 

 over all, this method of measuring would make some of the sharks from 

 20 to 25 feet in length. This species of shark is noted for its sluggish- 

 ness, and it is not uncommon for large specimens to be hauled up en 

 trawl-lines, though I have never before known of its occurrence in such 

 numbers as reported by Captain Johnson. 



In the deepest part of this pocket the bottom is muddy. Grenadiers 

 (Macrurns) are abundant, and some very large specimens of Newfound- 

 land turbot (Platysomatichthys Mppoglossoides) were taken. The latter 

 weighed more than 20 pounds on an average, as Captain Johnson thinks, 

 which is an extraordinary size. They generally do. not average more 

 than from 5 to 10 pounds. Several icebergs were grounded in the 

 pocket. One, which lay about 3 miles inside the pocket's mouth, was 

 grounded on the northern side in 125 fathoms, as Captain Johnson as- 

 certained by sounding near it. 



Gloucester, Mass., July 20, 1885. 



