The Halibut 365 
of one taken at New Ledge, sixty miles southeast 
of Portland, Maine, which weighed six hundred 
pounds. I was told at Boothbay, near which 
the Cunner Club, to which I was once “grand 
chummer,” was wont to meet, that a dead halibut 
had been found which weighed nearly six hun- 
dred and forty pounds, which was the record fish 
of New England waters. One of the largest 
halibuts ever brought into Gloucester weighed 
but three hundred and eighty pounds, and many 
catches have been made of over three hundred 
and fifty pounds. The fish of this weight are 
over seven or eight feet in length, and from three 
and a half to four feet in width, most difficult 
creatures to lift when the broad back is presented 
to the fisherman one hundred or more feet above. 
On the North Pacific coast this fish is com- 
mon, and is occasionally followed by Americans 
for sport. A friend who accompanied some 
Alaska fishermen offshore informed me that it 
was an exciting but very “damp pastime.” The 
hook which these Indians use for halibut, one of 
which I have in my possession, is a most extraor- 
dinary object; few who have seen it understood 
its nature, as it resembles a wooden god, half 
being the totem of the tribe, and the barbless 
