P] THE ICELANDIC HALIBUT FISHERY. 298 



terest in view of the discussion that has been going on in this country 

 rehitive to the comparative merits, so far as seaworthiness is eoncernetf , 

 of the English smacks and the American fishing schooners. Consider- 

 able numbers of welled ketch-rigged smacks— locally termed "cod- 

 men "—visit Iceland each summer in pursuit of cod. These vessels, for 

 the most part, belong at Grimsby, England. Captain Pendleton tells 

 me that on the day he left Iceland for home the wind came on to blow 

 heavy when he was some 30 to 40 miles off shore, and a bad sea got up. 

 His vessel was pretty deep in the water, and the seas tumbled aboard 

 her so much that it became extremely uncomfortable, not to say dan- 

 gerous, to attempt to carry sail longer and continue on his course. He 

 therefore hove to under a double-reefed foresail. Soon after he hove to 

 he was passed by an English smack that was carrying a single-reefed 

 mainsail and a whole (stay) foresail. Captain Pendleton speaks in the 

 highest terms and in the most emphatic manner of the behavior of this 

 vessel, which he says was going along so dry and comfortable that many 

 of her crew did not even have on oil clothes, and he judged she was 

 making a speed of 11 knots, at the least. Considering that the Alice 

 M. Williams is one of the finest of the clipper fleet scaling from Glou- 

 cester, comment is unnecessary. 



Captain Pendleton states that the currents on the Icelandic fishing 

 grounds are very irregular and uncertain, both as to direction and 

 strength. It is impossible to tell how the tides are going to run, or 

 how strong they will be. Generally speaking, the current does not run 

 swifter than from one-half to one mile an hour— occasionally two knots— 

 and the general trend is back and forth along the coast, excepting off 

 Cape North, where the tide sweeps around the compass. 



The halibut taken at Iceland are very much larger than thqse caught 

 at Greenhind, and, what is peculiar, the former are chiefly white fish, 

 while the latter are nearly all gray. In the early part of his trip 

 Captain Pendleton caught considerable quantities of codfish, part of 

 which he used for halibut bait, but he estimates that he threw over- 

 board codfish to the value of $400 or $500. He was obliged to do this 

 because he had no room to keep them on board, and as he could not 

 land any fish, they had to be thrown away. The traders at Iceland 

 would have been glad to buy the fish if they had been permitted to do 

 so, as they could have got them at very reasonable rates ; bu^. trade of 

 this kind was strictly forbidden.* 



The Alice M. Williams is 77.9G tons register. She carried a crew of 



I 16 men all told,t and 7 dories; set about 800 hooks to a dory. She 



' weighed off (including 2,000 pounds of thin or " loggy " fish) 162,000 



pounds of flitches, besides which she had Go barrels of fins ; her gross 



stock was $8,317.30, and the crew shared $208.90 each. The prices 



* Herring were seen in extraordiricary abimdance about the 1st of August, iu tlio 

 i vicinity of North Cape. 



( t An Icelander wag hired for about 40 days in July and August. 



