214 HISTOEY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Davidson has the following description of the bank in the Alaska Coast Pilot, 1869: 



"The bank where trial was first made for fish was found on the 15th of September, during a 

 prevalence of thick weather. We fortunately seized an opening and obtained good observations 

 for longitude, with an approximate latitude ; the position is in latitude 53 35', and longitude 

 164 10', and near it soundings were obtained in 50 fathoms of water, the lead bringing up sand and 

 a small starfish. With thick, drizzly weather the vessel drifted to the northwest by compass, until 

 GO fathoms were struck, with sandy, pebbly bottom. Here the lead-line was baited, and while on 

 the bottom the first cod took the hook. The fish proved very plenty, fat, and bit eagerly ; fre- 

 quently two were brought up on a double-hooked line, and sometimes three were brought up on a 

 line with three hooks. The largest measured 37 inches in length, and several reached 36 inches. 

 The finest was 36 inches long, 23 inches girth, and weighed 27 pounds ; was very fat, and certainly 

 of as fine, if not finer flavor than cod we had eaten eleven months before, freshly caught on the 

 south coast of Newfoundland. 



" The vessel drifted all the afternoon over this bank, with the same depth of water, and fish 

 biting well, although all appeared in capital condition and their maws full of food, such as squid, 

 halibut- head, fish the size of a herring, sea-lice, &c. We got no observations that noon or 

 afternoon, nor any all the next day, on account of thick, foggy, drizzling weather, but the vessel 

 could not have been far from latitude 53 40', and longitude 164 30', lying 65 miles ESE. true 

 from the middle of the Akoutan Pass, and 40 miles SSE. from the Unimak Pass. * * * The 

 50-fathom position is 40 miles broad off the nearest island of the Kriniatzin group, lying between 

 Unimak and Unalashka. Much deeper water, 104 fathoms, over a bottom of black sand, was sub- 

 sequently found in latitude 53 38', longitude 165 25', 43 miles westward of the a'bove cod bank, 

 and 25 miles broad off the islands." 



BANK OFF UNIMAK PASS. This bank, for which we have a position in north latitude 54, and 

 west longitude 166 nearly, was first sounded on by the bark Golden Gate in 1865, then in the 

 service of the Western Union Telegraph Expedition. Forty fathoms was found. 



BANK OFF SOUTH END OF UMNAK. In latitude 52 30' and longitude 168 50', 30 fathoms 

 was recorded. 



BANK SOUTH OF AMOHITKA. We know nothing definite about this, but a bank is reported 

 there. 



BANKS NEAR ILITJLITTK, UNALASHKA. Cod are present here all the year, going off into deeper 

 water in winter. They are most abundant on two banks one a short distance inside of the 

 entrance to Captain's Bay, and the other at the entrance to Port Levasheff. At the latter place 

 there is a ridge on which the bottom is hard and rocky, rich in mollusks, crustaceans, worms, 

 and small species of fish on which cod delight to feed. Here, in from 10 to 20 fathoms, we found 

 plenty of cod associated with Hippoglossoides elassodon, Bathymaster signatus, OymnacantJius 

 galeatus, Lepidopsetta bilineata, Hemilepidotus Jordani, Coitus polyacanthocephalus, Raia parmifera, 

 and the remarkable quill-fish (Ptilichthys Ooodei). 



COD IN BERING SEA. The statement of Captain Bryant has been often quoted to the effect 

 that : " Behring Sea is a mighty reservoir of cod and halibut, so that he never threw over his lines 

 without bringing up fish in whatever part of the sea he might happen." 



" The soundings of this sea," says Davidson, " and of the Arctic Ocean north of Behring's 

 Strait, indicate it as the most remarkable submarine plateau of such great extent yet known. On 

 the eastern half of this sea soundings of less than 50 fathoms are found over an extent of 18,000 

 square miles." 



I quote from Davidson again concerning Cook : " In Behring Sea, in latitude 55 48', longitude 



