94 H1S1OKY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



and, as the demand for the fish and the confidence of the fishermen increase, the Greenland halibut 

 fishery will no doubt grow to be of considerable importance. 



. Where the halibut are caught on the Grand Bank they are flitched and salted; but as the fresh 

 fish bring the higher price, the nearer the fishing grounds are to the market so much greater is the 

 probability of the fish being brought in fresh. On the other hand, fishing grounds at a long dis- 

 tance from home present so many difficulties to the fresh fishermen that no attempt is made to 

 carry home the halibut uncured. 



Formerly, when the smoked fish were first coming into the market and the halibut were very 

 abundant on nearly all the fishing banks, the supply was easily obtained near home, but now the 

 halibut on George's, Grand, and other southern banks are no longer plentiful enough to encourage 

 a fishery devoted to salting these fish. These banks, however, yield a few salt halibut, brought in 

 by the cod-fishermen. 



The reason the fresh-halibut fishery is still carried on with success where there is no encour- 

 agement for a salt fishery is that it takes only one-tenth the time to obtain a cargo of fish in the 

 former that it does in the latter industry. In the fresh fishery the fish in the hold of the vessel 

 occupy nearly as much space as when first caught, and they cannot be packed tightly together for 

 fear of spoiling, whereas in the salt fishery a large part of the bulk of each fish is thrown over- 

 board, and the parts saved are packed away as solidly as possible, not occupying nearly as much 

 space as the same number of fresh fish would. Again, in the fresh fishery much space is occupied 

 by the ice and ice-chest, which are not needed in the salt fishery. In this way it takes ten or more 

 times as many fish to make a cargo of salted halibut as it does to make a cargo of fresh halibut. 



Thus if a fresh fisherman fills his vessel in five days it would take a salt fisherman, with the 

 same luck in fishing, fifty or more days to fill the same vessel. If the fishing were twice as good 

 the fresh fisherman could secure a cargo in two and one-half days and the salt fisherman in twenty- 

 five days. It is thus an inducement to the salt fisherman to spend part of these twenty-five days 

 sailing to and from grounds where the fishing is much better than nearer home. In the north the 

 scarcity of fish does not limit the fishery, but the slow discovery and utilization of banks where 

 the halibut are probably very abundant. These fish, circumpolar in distribution and very abun- 

 dant in the North Pacific and in Davis Strait, must abound in many places where we have no 

 knowledge of their existence. 



ICELAND. 



In 1872 Capt. John McQuinn attempted to secure a "trip" of salt halibut from the fishing 

 banks near Iceland, but did not catch a sufficient quantity to encourage a second attempt. Other 

 circumstances, however, would indicate an abundance of these fish near Iceland. The French and 

 other fishermen who catch cod in the vicinity of Iceland, but to whom the halibut are worthless as 

 a food fish, complain that the halibut are at times so very plentiful as to seriously interfere with 

 the codfishing in these waters. A few years ago a Danish Government vessel returned to Den- 

 mark with a quantity of salted halibut, caught somewhere between Greenland and Iceland, but 

 the crew refused to reveal the exact spot where the fish were taken, fearing lest England or some 

 other foreign power might develop a fishery in that region. 



Considering the difficulties a stranger has to encounter when attempting to fish in unfamiliar 

 and distant waters, the failure of Captain McQuinn is not surprising, and is no indication of a 

 scarcity of halibut near Iceland.* 



* The United States Fish Commission having called the attention of the American fishermen to the abundance of 

 lialibut at Iceland, three Gloucester vessels went there in 1864 and secured good fares, and the present summer (1885) 

 live Gloucester vessels are 011 a voyage there. A full report of the voyages in 1884 is published in Volume V, United 

 Stud's Fish Commission Bulletin. 



