FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
265 
schooner Henry Dennis , made the following allusion to these difficulties 
in his testimony before the Senate committee, already referred to (see 
pages 343, 344) : 
What would he the use of catching halibut when they could not be brought to 
market? The transportation charge is so high to New York or Boston that it is im- 
possible to ship these fish. They want about $700 for a car, and $10 a ton for ice, and 
the fish will shrink 2,000 pounds out of 20,000, and of course we get no drawbacks. 
We are charged \\ cents a pound for the ice that is melted. Then, when we get to 
New York, we are boycotted and can not sell our fish, from the fact that the Atlantic 
Halibut Company have formed a trust. * " * Again, we can not come up to Seat- 
tle ; it would cost us from $100 to $125 to tow to Seattle. There are so many calms, 
head winds, and heavy currents here in the summer season that sailing vessels can't 
do it. Perhaps it might do if there was a railroad from Seattle to Port Townsend. 
You can most always get west winds to Port Townsend and get up there, but the 
mountains make the winds here at Tacoma variable, and it takes sometimes 3 or 4 
days to get up. 
# * # * * # w 
The weather here is very unfavorable; it is either a calm or a gale of wind, and 
the wear and tear to vessels on this coast is from 25 to 30 per cent, more than it is on 
the Atlantic coast. The Pacific Ocean is never tranquil at all, and even in calms 
the vessel slaps and slaps, and there is such a continual motion that the ironwork 
wears out, and the sails wear out. * * * On the Atlantic when the wind is done 
blowing it is still, but on this ocean there is always a swell, and the vessel is always 
rolling. 
The salt halibut has beeu shipped to Gloucester, Massachusetts, which 
is the headquarters of the smoked-halibut industry. The first shipment 
brought good prices and fairly remunerative returns. But the fish did 
not prove so desirable for smokiug as those taken in the Atlantic, and 
subsequent consignments arrived in more or less bad condition, thus 
decreasing the demand. This, together with the high transportation 
charges and the difficulty of shipping salt halibut across the continent 
in summer (when it is liable to be overheated and spoiled), made it prac- 
tically impossible to continue this branch of the fishery. At the close 
of 1889 the outlook for the continuance of the Pacific halibut fishery, 
as an industry of any considerable importance, was decidedly unfavor- 
able ; indeed, there was every prospect that it would be abandoned, or 
at least reduced to a scale only sufficient to supply the limited local 
demand. 
From the foregoing the following conclusions may be drawn : 
To insure the establishment of a successful halibut fishery on a per- 
manent basis, it first seems necessary that there should be railroad 
communication with Port Townsend, or that steamers should be em- 
ployed for fishing, and that the transportation agencies should realize 
the importance of making favorable rates in order to build up the busi- 
ness. The enterprise should also have the advantage of starting with 
ample capital backed by a knowledge of the business, and with an 
arrangement whereby the products — at least fresh halibut — can be 
distributed from some of the large cities of the Central States. The 
salt halibut should be smoked on Puget Sound. This would obviate 
