52 



FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 



smallest halibut of which we have heard was brought in by a Gloucester 

 vessel in 1880, and sent by mail to Mr. E. G. Blackford, the fish culturist, 

 of New York ; its weight was 20 ounces. 



The Portsmouth fishermen have a tradition of a monster codfish caught by 

 Samuel Haley, of Smutty Nose Island, Isles of Shoals, which weighed when 

 dressed and dried 113 lbs. In 1878 Capt. George H. Martin of Gloucester 

 took oflf Cape Cod a codfish weighing 1 1 1 lbs. dressed, and the next year 

 captured one in Ipswich Bay which measured 5 feet 2 inches in length and 

 weighed 90 lbs. when landed, and probably 100 lbs. when taken from the 

 water. In 1879 two codfish were received in the Portsmouth market each 

 of which weighed 108 lbs. Storer speaks of a codfish taken in the Spring 

 of 1807 at New Ledge, 60 miles southeast of Portland, Me., which weighed 

 107 lbs. The New York "Journal'* of April 3, 1793, reports a codfish 

 "lately sold in the Newburyport market," which was 5^ feet in length and 

 weighed 98 lbs. One of 97 lbs. was caught off Portsmouth in 1827, and 

 one of 94 lbs., "undressed," by the Swampscott fishermen in 1857. In 

 February, 1823, the Marblehead fishermen sent to John Q. Adams, Secre- 

 tary of State, frozen with great care and packed in ice, a codfish weighing 

 84 lbs. In 1881 the sch. Morrill Boy, Capt. Russell Gill, took on one trip 

 net fishing 319 codfish, weighing 9,570 lbs., or averaging 30 lbs. each. 



A lobster 38 inches in length and weighing 15 lbs. was taken at New 

 Bedford in the Fall of 1881 ; a few months earlier a lobster weighing 13 lbs. 

 was taken at Liverpool, N. S., and sold for 25 cents. A horse mackerel 

 weighing 545 lbs. was landed at Portland, Me., in the Summer of 1881. A 

 bass weighing 79 lbs. was taken near Portsmouth, N. H., in August, 1881 ; 

 it was two hours from the time it was hooked before it was landed, in a 

 fourteen foot boat, which was half full of water before the fish was secured. 

 A 445 lb. turtle was taken in the weirs at Orleans, Mass., in August, 188 1. 



