46 HISTORY AND METHODS OP THE FISHERIES. 



Newfoundland, the southern coast of Labrador, island of Anticosti, Magdalen Islands, Virgin 

 Rocks on the Grand Bank, and other localities heretofore mentioned, were visited. More or less 

 halibut were found at all these places. Captain Johnson, in the schooner Ocean Belle (now in the 

 Augusta H. Johnson), caught a fare in the bay of Saint George, and another of 70,000 pounds at 

 Red Island, on the west coast of Newfoundland. Only a few fares have been caught at the Mag- 

 dalen Islands, and those were mostly taken on the shoal between the Bird Rocks and Byron 

 Island.- Captain Markuson, in the schooner Notice, got the best fare there that I have heard of; 

 he had about 40,000 pounds. The date of this trip was about 1869. The halibut were pursued 

 with more or less success on the shores of Newfoundland, Labrador, and Anticosti in summer, 

 until 1875, when the deep-water fisheries being discovered, and several vessels making unsuccess- 

 ful trips on the northern coasts, the fishermen became convinced that the schools were broken up, 

 and those fisheries were abandoned until last year, 1878, when the schooner Chester R. Lawrence 

 got two good fares, 80,000 pounds the first and 60,000 pounds the second, and the schooner G. P. 

 Whitman, one trip of 80,000 pounds, at Green Point, about 10 miles northerly from Bonne Bay, 

 northwest coast of Newfoundland. In the spring of 1861, while on a " salt trip " to Cape North, 

 Cape Breton Island, we found halibut plenty 10 miles northerly from the Cape in 75 to 90 fathoms, 

 but since then the catch in that region has been small, and recently it is a rare occurrence to get 

 halibut there. I have never known of a full fare of fresh halibut being taken there, though it is 

 possible such may have been the case. My brother, Capt. D. E. Collins, was there codfishing in 

 the spring of 1877 and 1878, and he tells me that he got very few halibut. Meanwhile, as early as 

 1869 or 1870, if not earlier, some of the halibut catchers resorted to the Gully between Banquereau 

 and Sable Island, generally about the first of April, and many good fares were taken there. But 

 as the fishermen seldom, if ever, ventured beyond a depth of 70 fathoms, they generally " lost the 

 run of the fish " after May. 



Captain Nute, in the C. B. Manning, was probably the first to visit the Virgin Rocks on a 

 u fresh trip," going there about the 1st of July, 1870. He caught a fare of 83,000 pounds in a 

 week on the westerly side of the " main shoal." These fish, as well as those which visit Miquelon 

 Beach, Newfoundland, and other northern coasts, were in pursuit of capelin, which at that 

 season are abundant about the Virgin Rocks, and which is a favorite food for both halibut and 

 cod. The schooners Frank Butler, N. H. Phillips, and Eastern Queen all obtained good fares 

 there after the Manning left for home. The Manning got another fare of 46,000 pounds at the 

 Rocks in August; but when the Eastern Queen went there on her return to the Bank, about the 

 last of August, the fish had left, or were broken up, and she was obliged to go farther south, and 

 then secured only a small fare. In 1871 I was in the Alice G. Wonson, and about the 20th of 

 June we baited in Fortune Bay, after which we tried off Pass Island, in company with the schooner 

 Lizzie A. Tarr, at Miquelon Beach, with a fleet of six or seven other vessels, and also on the 

 northern part of Saint Peter's Bank. At all of these places we found halibut very scarce, not- 

 withstanding that they had been abundant in these localities one or two years earlier. Failing 

 to catch fish enough to warrant our going home, we returned to Fortune Bay, and baited the 

 second time on July 4. As soon as we got our bait we proceeded direct to the Virgin Rocks, 

 arriving there about the 6th or 7th of July. The schooners Mary G. Dennis, Capt. Randall Mc- 

 Donald, and Varuna, Capt. B. A. Williams, arrived there one or two days previous. They caught 

 a few halibut on their first sets, but the school was soon broken up, and by the time we arrived at 

 the Rocks fish were so scarce that, after making a thorough trial, all of the vessels left and pro- 

 ceeded farther south. Thus ended the halibut fishing at the Virgin Rocks, for none of any amount 

 have been taken there since. 



