SALT-HALIBUT FISHERY. 115 
After the flitches are cut from the fish they are thrown into large tubs, called flitching-tubs, 
to be there rinsed free from blood and dirt, previous to being salted in the hold. It is one man’s 
duty to attend to the washing of the flitches and to the passing of them below, while three men are 
salting. The hold is divided by plank partitions, into six large bins, three on a side, in some 
of which the salt is kept until needed for salting the fish in the others. One man carefully 
places the flitches in layers, one above the other; a second man, with a scoop such as grocers use 
for flour and sugar, covers them with the salt, while a third shovels the salt within reach of the 
second. The Bunker Hill left Gloucester with 270 hogsheads of salt, and out of this salted 9,000 
fish, amounting to 140,000 pounds of flitches, having used a little over nine tenths of the whole 
quantity. This salt came from Cadiz, Spain, and cost $1.50 per hogshead, or $405 for the whole. 
7. TABULAR VIEW OF A SUMMER’S WORK IN DAVIS’ STRAIT FISHERY. 
The following tables represent in a concise form the time of setting and hauling the trawls, 
- the number of fish caught at each haul, together with the depth of water, tides, weather, &c., while 
the trawls were in the water. I have taken the time when the men left the vessel for setting and 
hauling to represent the time of these operations. To set four skates of trawl usually took a little 
less than one hour, while for hauling the same, especially if there were many fish, required three, 
and often four, hours. 
Since the outer end of the trawl was set last and hauled first, this would remain in the water 
less time than that represented by the tables, while the inner end, set first but hauled last, would 
be in the water much longer. Yet, as a rule, more fish were caught on the outer than on the inner 
end. Many things are unfavorable for the trawls remaining long in the water. In the first place, 
if the fish are present they will soon hook themselves, and more time than is necessary for this is, 
of course, wasted. Then, again, the tide, fish, or both combined, are apt to entangle the trawls in 
the rocks, if these are left too long in the water; besides, the voracity of the little shrimp would 
soon leave nothing but the bones of the halibut for the disappointed fishermen, were they allowed 
many hours to satisfy their appetite. So plentiful are these little creatures in some places that they 
could be scraped off the fish by the handfuls, and, when the trawls had remained in the water two 
or three hours, they bad left the brauchiostegals hanging loosely, besides making a general assault 
on the whole body. 
There were three days of fishing before the 5th of July (the date first mentioned in the table) 
of which I have no detailed notes, and have therefore omitted mentioning them in the table. The 
fish caught during these days, together with those caught on the hand-line from the side of the 
vessel, would certainly make the whole number taken during the trip over 9,000. Sixty-six hauls 
are recorded in the table, by which 8,616 fish were taken, averaging 139 for each haul. The smallest 
number taken at a single set was 4, the depth being 27 fathoms, and the largest number was 497, 
the depth being between 25 to 30 fathoms. The depths expressed, owing to the irregularities of 
the banks and the extent of surface covered by the trawls, are, of course, only approximate, but 
whenever this was measured I have used the depth where the vessel was anchored in preference to 
the rough calculations of the fishermen, for I have found them, in this respect, a little inclined to 
overestimate. It will be observed that the depth in August was less than in July: 
