1885.] A Brief Biography of the Halibut. 959 
side of George’s was a kind of ‘ mother-place’ for fishing hali- 
but.” There was no great abundance of halibut on George’s 
after 1848. 
The abundance of the species on the off-shore banks before 
the over-fishing took place is almost beyond credence. The fol- 
lowing is selected from a large number of instances of fishermen’s 
successes: The schooner Mary Carlisle, of Gloucester, made 
nine trips to the banks in 1871. Her catch was 350,188 pounds 
of halibut and 58,759 pounds of codfish ; her net stock amounted 
to $17,275.53 for about eleven months’ work, from December 27, 
1870, to November 21, 1871. On one trip in the spring she 
brought in 58,553 pounds of halibut and 6900 pounds of codfish, 
her net stock reaching the sum of $4738.75, and her crew sharing 
$236.25 each from a voyage of thirty-four days. She had ten 
men in her crew, each of whom during the season shared $858.62. 
In three years this vessel stocked a total of $46,871, divided as 
follows: 1869, $17,549; 1870, $12,047; 1871, $17,275.53. 
The presence of so important a food-fish in America did 
not long escape the observations of the early English ex- 
plorers. Captain John Smith, in his History of Virginia, 
wrote: “There is a large sized fish called hallibut, or turbut: 
some are taken so bigg that two men have much a doe to hall 
them into the boate; but there is such plenty, that the fisher men 
onely eat the heads & finnes, and throw away the bodies: such in 
Paris would yeeld 5. or 6. crownes a peece: and this is no dis- 
commodity.” ' 
The halibut is surpassed in size by only three fishes on the 
Atlantic coast—the swordfish, the tunny and the tarpum. It 
is said, by experienced fishermen, that there is a difference in the 
size of the two sexes, the females being much the larger; the 
male, they tell us, rarely exceeds fifty pounds in weight, and is 
ordinarily in poor condition and less desirable for food. The 
average size of a full-grown female is somewhere between 100 
and 150 pounds, though they are sometimes much heavier. 
Captain Collins, who has had many years’ experience in the Glou- 
` cester halibut fishery, assures me that he has never seen one 
which would weigh over 250 pounds, and that a fish weighing over 
- 250 pounds is considered large. There are, however, well authen- 
ticated instances of their attaining greater dimensions. Captain 
_ Atwood, in a communication to the Boston Society of Natural 
