58 HISTORY AND METHODS OP THE FISHERIES. 



themselves, they continued their efforts for my relief with extraordinary zeal and coolness. For- 

 tunately I could speak soon alter being taken into the cabin, and was thus able to direct what 

 should be done both for myself and for the safety of the vessel. 



We had only three more squalls after I was struck by lightning ; those were not so heavy as 

 the previous ones, and after they were past, the wind soon subsided to an ordinary gale. 



After recovering sufficiently to examine my injuries, I found that the lightning had plowed 

 along my right arm from the wrist to above the elbow, scorching it severely, while five smaller 

 burns were on my right leg below the knee, and mostly about the ankle. My right side was para- 

 lyzed, and I could not stand on my feet for several days. 



We started for home as soon as the gale was over, but had a long, hard passage. My burns 

 were so painful that when we got as far as Liverpool, Nova Scotia, we went in there for medical 

 assistance, and arrived home on the 23d of December. The Augusta H. Johnson got in the same 

 day. We had only 17,000 pounds of halibut, but as we obtained a high price for them we made a 

 fair trip. 



The Daniel A. Burnham was lost in this gale, being knocked down and dismasted. She was 

 abandoned after the gale, her crew being taken to St. John's, Newfoundland. The Andrew Leighton 

 was knocked on her beam ends and came near foundering, and the William T. Merchant was lost. 

 This alludes only to the vessels in our immediate vicinity when the gale came on. Several other 

 Gloucester vessels were lost or abandoned ; the total loss of life reached 100. 



One of the men who had been with me for nearly two years now took charge of the Howard 

 for a trip, while I remained at home to recruit from the effects of the lightning-stroke. 



Halibut were found extremely abundant in the winter of 1877, between the parallels of 43 

 and 44 north latitude, in 60 to 90 fathoms, on the western edge of the Grand Bank. They were 

 taken from the middle of January until nearly the last of March, 1877, but were most numerous 

 during the last days of February and first half of March. 



I took charge of the Howard again on her return, and went to the Grand Bank. We got a 

 trip of 70,000 pounds of halibut to the northward of latitude 44, in 55 to 90 fathoms, on the 

 western edge of the Grand Bank. In latitude 44 23' and longitude 52 30', in 55 fathoms, we 

 caught more than 20,000 pounds of fish at one set with 15 skates of .trawl. The next set we got 

 only 5,000 pounds, which indicated that the fish were moving fast. This was the trip before I 

 began my daily journal, in which it is recorded that the following winter very few, if any, halibut 

 were caught in less than 140 fathoms on the Grand Bank. 



Large quantities of halibut were found all along the southern edge of the Western Bank, 

 La Have Ridges, and Brown's Bank, and, in fact, as far west as George's, in the deep water, when 

 first resorted to by the fishermen; but in a short time the fish appeared to be considerably reduced 

 in abundance, and in the summer of 1879 I do not know of any vessel finding halibut plenty on La 

 Have Ridges or vicinity. 



Ever since deep-water fisheries have been pursued, halibut have been found, just previous to 

 and during their spawning season, in July, August, and September, in large numbers on rough or 

 rocky bottom, most generally on rocky spots or patches of small extent which occur along the 

 slopes of the outer bauks. From my own observations, I believe that bottom where the rocks are 

 supplemented with a growth of corals is peculiarly attractive to halibut. The fish which frequent 

 these localities are generally large gravid halibut, called " mother fish," but among them are always 

 found more or less male halibut, invariably smaller, averaging about one-third the size of the 

 females. The males are called the "little bulls" by fishermen. 



