BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 31 3 



middle of January to the last of April — the schools of halibut found on 

 the body of the Grand Bank, between 43° 30' and 45° north latitude, ap- 

 peared to come from the east or southeast side of the Bank, and almost 

 invariably moved slowly but steadily across the ground in a westerly 

 or northwesterly direction. A vessel might obtain remarkably good 

 fishing for two or three days, perhaps for a shorter time, but the hali. 

 but would suddenly disappear and none could be taken. It frequently 

 happened that on such occasions a change of position — the schooner 

 moving 5 or G miles in the direction which the fish were known to 

 be going — might result iu the school being overtaken again, and in the 

 capture of a full fare. In some instances a skipper might be able to 

 ; < keep run " of the fish for several days, and while they were passing 

 over a distance of 20 to 30 miles, and many statements could be 

 cited of a character to verify this assertion, though it would proba- 

 bly be superfluous to do so, since these matters have been quite fully 

 discussed in the account of the halibut fishery, where, perhaps, they 

 more property belong. As it may be a source of wonder to many how 

 any intelligent idea could be formed by the fishermen of the direction 

 in which the halibut were moving, the following explanation should be 

 offered : 



The custom is for the Grand Bank halibut schooners to fish with 

 trawls, each more than a mile long. These are set out from the vessel, 

 from which, as a center, they radiate in the form of a star, stretch- 

 ing out in six long lines like the tentacles of the nautilus. A school of 

 halibut approaching from the east would first be caught in great abund- 

 ance on the lines set in that direction, while the trawls on the west side 

 of the vessel would get comparatively few fish. On the next set the 

 catch might be pretty equally divided, while succeeding hauls would 

 show that the fish had moved so far that only the "tail end" of the 

 school could be reached by the farthest ends of the western trawls. 

 As soon as this occurred, any intelligent skipper, understanding the 

 habits of the species, could form a tolerably definite theory as to how 

 fast the halibut were moving and also the course they were pursuing. 

 Notwithstanding it was apparently well known that the halibut were 

 migrating at such times, only the most vague and indefinite ideas were 

 formed as to the place from which they came or whither they went. No 

 one seems to have entertained the thought that they "hung around" 

 the edges of the Bank in deep water after leaving the body or shoaler por- 

 tions of the ground. That the halibut came from some undiscovered 

 bank to the eastward and passed across the Grand Bank on their way 

 north and west towards Newfoundland, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, 

 Labrador, etc., was, I think, the general belief of the fishermen, at 

 least, of such as took the trouble to formulate any theory. The dis- 

 covery of halibut along the east side of the Grand Bank seemingly 

 settles this question, and it is undoubtedly a fact that the great schools 

 of this species, which for many years have been known to migrate 



