198 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
Capt. W. H. Oakes, of Gloucester, tells us that he made a trip to George’s Bank for cod in 
1835, in the schooner Accumulator. ‘This was one of the earliest trips for cod to those fishing 
grounds. If there was a previous trip it must have been made by Capt. George Watson, who 
entered the George’s cod fishery at about the same time.” 
When Captain Oakes first went to George’s Bank, in 1835, it was considered dangerous for 
vessels to lie at anchor. They were accustomed to heave up anchor with every fresh breeze. 
As early as 1840, vessels went to George’s for cod in January and February. They were laid 
up only between November and January. 
As early as 1845 Captain Marr remembers to have seen one hundred and forty sail of vessels 
on George’s at one time. 
In good weather the vessels made a very quick trip. In or about the year 1860 the schooner 
Bounding Billow went and returned within four and one-half days, bringing 65.000 pounds of cod- 
fish and 5,000 pounds of halibut. In 1856 the George’s fishery was very successful. 
In 1861, states the Cape Ann Weekly Advertiser, from fifty to seventy-five vessels sailed for 
George’s about the 20th of January. 
In 1863, in February, according to the Gloucester Telegraph, about forty vessels were fitting 
for the George’s fishery. 
In 1873 a writer in the Fisherman’s Memorial and Record Book wrote: “There are now two 
hundred and fifty sail engaged in the busjness, whose average valuation is $6,000. The trips 
brought in during the best part of the season will average $700, and stocks of from $1,500 to $2,000 
are not infrequent; while the Grand Bank fishery, comparatively a new branch of the business, 
often discounts from $3,000 to $4,000 on a single trip; the result of the energy and pluck of our 
fishermen.” 
5.—THE COD FISHERY OF ALASKA. 
‘By TARLETON H. BEAN. 
1. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC COD. 
THE SPECIES DISCUSSED.—The cod fishery of Alaska has nearly ended its second decade,* yet 
it was not until the summer of 1880 that we knew positively what species of Gadus is the object of 
the fishery. Most writers have referred to it under the name of Gadus macrocephalus, which was 
bestowed by Tilesius upon the Kamtchatkan cod, the figure of which suggests that it was based 
upon a deformed individual. Cope, in 1873, described the young of the common Alaska cod as a new 
species, Gadus auratus, from specimens collected by Prof. George Davidson, of the U.S. Coast Sur- 
vey, at Unalashka. Steindachner, in the Proceedings (Sitaungsberichte) of the Vienna Academy, 
LXI, 1, 1870, adopts the name G. macrocephalus for a large cod taken in De Castries Bay (mouth of 
Amur River), Siberia. In this example the length of the head is contained exactly three times in 
the total length to the extreme end of the pointed caudal peduncle. The same proportion may, how- 
ever, be found in any place where large numbers of Gadus morrhua are taken, and it can readily 
*This was written in 1880. 
