218 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [30] 
fishermen use for bait, nor can it be that they mistake the white gleam of 
the flesh for sharks, for the sharks caught here were of a very dark color. 
Whether we know the cause or not, it is none the less true that the fish 
cease to bite near the vessel, after the first flitching, whereas, if this oper- 
ation is delayed, or the tide, at the time of it, is strong enough to carry 
the “gurry” away a considerable distance, the fish continue to bite freely. 
Considering, then, that the “ gurry” has this effect, what is the result of 
remaining in one spot several days? Evidently the mass of “ gurry” will 
increase, and, being drifted by the tides, will cause the vessel to be the 
center of an ever-increasing spot, where the halibut will not bite. It is 
thus necessary, either to set the trawls at a greater distance from the 
vessel, or else to move this to a new spot. The latter method, of course, 
is the easier. 
On the 23d, 24th, and 25th of July, over 1,500 fish were taken from a 
limited spot, at some distance from the vessel, where the gurry did 
not reach, because the tide ran in the opposite direction, but there 
appeared little if any decrease in the numbers. The spot could be 
easily distinguished from the rest of the bottom, by the absence of the 
tree-like stems of Hydrozoa. On the 26th, only two of the dories suc- 
ceeded in setting on this spot, and these two got fish while the others 
failed. The attempt to bring the vessel nearer failed so utterly that the 
trawls did not touch the spot again; 1,700 fish had been caught in four 
days, on a spot not a mile square. I am inclined to think that as fast 
as some were caught their places were filled by new arrivals, and were 
it not for the gurry, a vessel once anchored in a favorable position would 
not have to move until a load had been secured. 
But, it will be asked, will this gurry permanently injure the fishing? 
Probably not. There are many carnivorous animals, besides the little 
shrimp already spoken of, which would soon eat up everything except 
the bones of the fish, and it is hard to see what harm these can do. Never- 
theless, there does seem to be some effect produced by the fishing of one 
year upon the abundance of the fish in the same place the succeeding 
years; for the fishermen complain that the halibut off the coasts of New 
England, Nova Scotia, and New Foundland must be sought in deeper and 
deeper water year after year. If this be so, it is hard of explanation. 
For if we consider the halibut as of a roving disposition, why should 
they ‘shun their former haunts because they have been fished on, or if, on 
the other hand, they are not rovers, how can they, considering this great 
fecundity, be so easily exterminated, as their disappearance from these 
haunts would imply ? 
This fecundity must be very great. In a fish about six feet in length 
I calculated the ovary had 2,782,425 eggs. This was done by counting 
how many eggs there were in a straight row an inch long and from this 
finding how many there were in a cubic inch. The number of cubic. 
inches in one of the boxes in which the codfish hooks came was caleu- 
lated and the box filled with eggs. These eggs were then weighed. 
