HALIBUT, FLAT-FISH AND FLOUNDER. 319 
the bottom, giving little opportunity to the skates, which very seldom get 
a chance at a Plaice’s hook. In this-respect they are very different from 
the cod. When the fish have been hauled to the surface, they are quickly 
transferred, with as little injury as possible, to the well of the smack, 
which is amply large enough to hold the results of two or three days’ fish- 
ing. They are thus brought alive to the place of shipment and reach the 
markets in excellent condition, a fact which partially explains their 
popularity compared with that of other fish of the same family. 
In 1877 there were seven smacks engaged in this fishery—one from 
Mystic, one from New London, and five from Noank. It was estimated 
by the owner of one of the vessels that each vessel made on an average 
fifteen trips during the summer, and that each trip averaged 800 fish, 
weighing 134 pounds each, making a total of 1,400 pounds to a trip, or 
21,000 pounds to the season, thus giving an aggregate of 147,000 pounds 
as the result of this branch of the fishery. 
Capt. Atwood states that in 1846 he began catching Plaice for the Bos- 
ton market, in Provincetown Harbor, anchoring where the keel of the smack 
would just clear the bottom, and anywhere near Race Point he could catch 
them in great numbers, the largest weighing from ten to fifteen pounds 
each. In one afternoon he caught two thousand pounds. These he carried 
to Boston in the well of his smack and tried to sell, but was unsuccessful, 
though they were offered under the name of ‘‘ Turbot,’’ local prejudice being 
against them. In 1879 there were seven or eight boats engaged in the 
Plaice fishery during the month of June, this month being the best for 
Plaice fishing. In the latter part of July, when I made my observations, 
all of the winter boats had stopped fishing for the year. 
The method in use here is somewhat peculiar, and merits description. 
The fishermen call it ‘‘drailing for Plaice.’? The boat used is an ordinary 
cat-boat, managed by one person, and is allowed to drift with free sheet 
before the wind, while the fisherman stands in the stern dragging the line 
over the bottom, baited with a bit of squid or clam. The boat is kept as 
nearly as possible over the places where the flats are deepening most 
abruptly into the basin of the harbor, and where the water is from eight to 
eighteen fathoms deep. Only very large fish, weighing ten, fifteen, some- 
times even twenty pounds, are taken in this manner. The average catch 
is from eight to twenty a day. In one day one man reported eight, one 
fourteen, and one twenty-three. Some of these fish are sold in Province- 
