194 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



hard clayey bottom. This is called the " Gully." In the summer, this species strays 

 up Massachusetts Bay, and scatters all along the shoal water, upon the hard bottoms ; 

 but in winter it goes back to this " Gully," and there remains during the cold weather. 

 The reasons appear to be obvious. The shoal water would be too cold a situation for 

 them during the winter ; and the middle of the bay has a muddy bottom, which it 

 avoids. Halibut were first taken in this "Gully" about twenty years since, and for 

 several successive seasons the fishery was quite a lucrative business, but at present the 

 fish are very scarce there. In the most successful year's fishery at this place, about 

 75,000 pounds of halibut were taken by the Provincetown fishermen. When the halibut 

 were first caught at the " Gully," they averaged nearly one hundred pounds each ; thir- 

 teen fish captured at one time weighed 2,043 pounds ; those taken afterwards were 

 smaller, and during the second and third years' fishery, they weighed sixty pounds or 

 less upon an average. 



An unusual number of halibut were brought to Boston market in the early part of 

 1837. Eighty large schooners, of from sixty to eighty tons' burden, belonging to Cape 

 Ann, were thus employed. Captain Nathaniel Blanchard, of Lynn, one of our oldest 

 fishermen, and to whom I am indebted for many valuable facts in the preparation of 

 this report, informs me that the largest individual of this species he ever saw weighed 

 386 pounds. The late Mr. Lemuel Newcomb, then the oldest fishmonger in Boston 

 market, stated to me in 1847, that, forty years before, a halibut was taken upon the 

 South Shore, and brought to Boston, which, after the head and bowels were removed, 

 weighed 420 pounds. This specimen when perfect must have weighed nearly 500 

 pounds. 



For a knowledge of the largest specimen of which I have heard, I am indebted to 

 Mr. Anthony Holbrook, a fishmonger in Boston market, — for many years a practical 

 fisherman, and possessing an unusually extensive knowledge of our fishes, and a man 

 of unimpeachable veracity. He assures me that a halibut weighing upwards of 600 

 pounds was taken at New Ledge, sixty miles southeast of Portland, Maine, in 1807. 



This species feeds upon other fishes. In its stomach are frequently found portions of 

 haddock, rays, menhaden, mackerel, herring, the eel-shaped blenny, &c. Its flesh is 

 rather coarse and dry, but by many is much esteemed ; when fresh, the fins are a great 

 delicacy, as also when pickled and packed. When fresh, this species sells for a higher 

 price than the cod. Large quantities are also smoked, and occasionally the dried flesh 

 is eaten. 



Greenland, Fabricius. Maine and Massachusetts, Storer. Connecticut, Linsley. 

 New York, Mitchill, Dekay. 



