66 FISHING-GROUNDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



More recently, since the beginning of the deeper-water fishing, it has been discovered that they 

 more conunouly migrate toward the northwest, along the edge of the bank on the west side, and 

 in some cases their course has been traced even beyond the limits of the Grand Bank. 



Since the foregoing was written (1880), halibut have been found in abundance in the deep 

 water off the eastern side of the bank, but owing to the presence of icebergs during the greater 

 liart of the year, and the strength of the polar current in that region, but few vessels have ven- 

 tured there. 



GKEEN BANK. 



Green Bank is for its size one of the least important of the fishing-banks of the Western 

 Atlantic, but one of the best halibut grounds lies in the deep water near its southern part, and 

 as this is also called Green Bank by the fishermen, it may not be out of place to consider it in this 

 connection. This bank has an irregular, elongate pear-shaped outline, the longer axis extending 

 due north and south. It is situated between Grand and Saint Pierre Banks, being seven miles 

 distant from the former and fifteen miles from the latter. Its extreme length within the 

 sixty-fathom line, is sixty-two miles, north and south, from 45° 09' to 40° 11' north latitude, and 

 its width is thirty-six miles, between the meridians of 54° 08' and 54° 58' west longitude. 

 The area of the bank is about fourteen hundred and fifty square geographical miles. The depths 

 range from forty to sixty fathoms, and the bottom is composed of sand, shells, pebbles, and 

 rocks. The general direction of the polar current, which sets over this bank, is usuallj' from the 

 north to the southwest, its course, as well as its force, being more or less influenced by the 

 wind. But little is known of the abundance of cod here, as the fishermen prefer to resort to 

 grounds with which they are better acquainted and have seldom fished on this one. Within the 

 past two or three years, however, some good fares of cod have been taken on Green Bank, in the 

 late summer and the fall, by New England vessels. 



Since 1875, halibut have generally been found very abundantly in the winter and spring, and 

 sometimes even during the summer, in from seventy-five to three hundred fathoms, off the 

 southern edge of the bank, between the Graud Bank and Saint Pierre Bank. 



This locality ajipears to be a feeding-ground in the winter, and during the spring lies in the 

 direct course taken by the halibut in their migrations fromi the Grand Bank to other places 

 farther north. At this season it is not uncommon for immense schools to make their appearance 

 in this region and move leisurely along the edge of the bank. The only vessels fishing for halibut 

 at this place are from Gloucester, Massachusetts. 



BANK OF SAINT PIERRE. 



The Bank of Saint Pierre is situated off the center of the southern coast of Newfoundland, 

 between the parallels of 45° 10' and 40° 54' north latitude, and the meridians 55° 16' and 57° 30' 

 west longitude. It is irregularly oblong in shape, about twice as long as broad, and extends in a 

 northwest and southeast direction. At the northwestern extremity it is about half as wide as at 

 the southeastern, where it rapidly broadens out, and ends abruptly along a nearly straight line 

 bearing north and south. The longest side of the bank, which measures about one hundred and 

 twenty-five miles, presents a slight outward curve and faces the southwest. The width of the north- 

 western end is about thirty-five miles, and that of the southern end sixty-five miles. 



The northeastern edge of the bank is distant about twenty-seven miles front the nearest 

 point on the Newfoundland coast, and from nine to ten miles from the islands of Saint Pierre 

 and IMiqnelon, The gnlly separating Saint Pierre Bank from Green Bank runs directly 



