3o8 AMERICAN FISHES. 



be identical with that of the Atlantic, ranges from the Farallone Islands 

 northward to Behring Straits, becoming more abundant northward. Its 

 centre of abundance is in the Gulf of Alaska, particularly about Kodiak, 

 the Alexander Archipelago, and the Shumagins. It is occasionally taken 

 off San Francisco and about Humboldt Bay. In the Straits of Fuca and in 

 the deeper channels about Puget Sound it is taken in considerable 

 numbers. 



The Halibut is emphatically a cold-water species. That it ranges nine 

 or ten degrees further south on the American than on the European coast, 

 is quite in accordance with the general law of the distribution of fish-life 

 in the Atlantic ; indeed, it is only in winter that Halibut are known to 

 approach the shore to the south of Cape Cod, and it is safe to say that the 

 temperature of the water in which they are at present most frequently 

 taken is never, or rarely higher than 45°, and seldom higher than 35°, 

 and often in the neighborhood of 32°. Its geographic range corresponds 

 closely to that of the codfish, with which it is almost invariably associated, 

 though the cod is less dependent upon the presence of very cold water, and 

 in the Western Atlantic is found four or five degrees— in the Eastern 

 Atlantic at least two — nearer the Equator, while the range of the two 

 species to the north is probably, though not certainly, known to be limited 

 relatively in about the same degree. In the same manner the Halibut 

 appears to extend its wanderings further out to sea, and in deeper and 

 colder water than the cod. Although observations on this point have 

 necessarily been imperfect, it seems to be a fact, that while cod are very 

 rarely found upon the edge of the continental slope of North America, 

 beyond the 250-fathom line, Halibut are present there in abundance. 



The name of this species is quite uniform in the regions where it is 

 known, though of course subject to certain variations in the languages of 

 the different countries, and its characteristic features are so unmistakable 

 that it is rarely confounded with other species, the only fish for which it is 

 ever mistaken seeming to be the Turbot of the European coast, with whicli 

 it sometimes interchanges names. In Scotland it is said that the Halibut 

 is frequently called the Turbot, and Yarrell has expressed the opinion th;;t 

 in instances where it had been claimed that Halibut had been taken in 

 the south of Ireland the Turbot was the species actually referred to. 



" Flalibut " and " Holibut " are words which are as old as tlie English 

 language. In Germanv it is called '-Ilcilbutt" or " Heiligcbutt " : in 



