HALIB UT, FLA T-FISH AND FL O UNDER. 325 



It would seem i)robable that its chosen haunts are along the declivities 

 of the outer slope of the continental plateau, where abundance of food is 

 known to occur, and where other fishes are not so well adapted to live. 

 Many hundreds of pounds are caught, every year, on the halibut trawls, 

 and the fish are frequently iced and brought to market with the Halibut, 

 and frequently eaten by the fishermen themselves. The greater portion of 

 those brought to New York in winter are, however, taken on trawl lines at 

 the mouth of Fortune Bay, and brought down by the vessels which go there 

 to secure cargoes of frozen herring. It is impossible to obtain statistics 

 of the quantities thus brought in, because the market returns do not dis- 

 criminate between the different species of flounders and flat fishes. 



The Greenland Turbot is an exceedingly palatable fish, its flesh being 

 firm, white, and less dry and more delicate in flavor than that of the Hal- 

 ibut. The average weight is from ten to twenty-five pounds. In Greenland 

 they are perhaps more highly esteemed than any other fish. The Green- 

 landers begin fishing as soon as the fiords are frozen and the white whales, 

 which prey greedily upon this fish, have left the entrances open. They 

 fish through holes in the ice, and attach little threads at intervals to lines, 

 so that they may better see the motion which the nibbling fish makes. 

 Under favorable circumstances a man may take ten to eighteen of these 

 fishes daily. The fishery continues from January to the middle of March, 

 sometimes, however, only a week or two, and usually only about a month. 

 The fish are cut into strips and dried for the consumption of the Danish 

 colonists. It it said that a very fine oil can be made out of their fat, so 

 that in hard times the fish serves to \,-arm and light the houses as well as 

 feed their occupants. In South Greenland they are not so numerous, l)ut 

 are constantly sought for, being taken in company with the sea perch, or 

 red fish. 



Glyptocephalus cynoglossus, a fish often known as the Deep-sea 

 Flounder, was first observed on this coast in 1877, when numerous speci- 

 mens were obtained by the United States Fish Commission, in the deep- 

 est part of Massachusetts Bay. Specimens have since been obtained south 

 of Cape Cod, at a dej^th of one hundred fathoms or more, by the Fish 

 Commission, and by Prof. Agassiz, off the entrance to Delaware Bay, 

 at a depth of three hundred and ninety-five fathoms. The Pole Flounder 

 appears to be a permanent resident, throughout the whole year, in the deep 

 .basins of Massachusetts Bay and on the edge of the continental slope, and 



