964 A Brief Biography of the Halibut. [October, 
to the naturalist, and it is from them that we derive all our knowl- 
edge of the habits of the animal while feeding. The halibut, fol- 
lowing in after the schools of capelin which visit the shores of 
Western Newfoundland, Southern Labrador and the islands of 
Anticosti and Miquelon to spawn, have often been found in great 
abundance in very shallow water, not above five to ten fathoms 
deep. 
Fishermen who have watched halibut under such circum- 
stances, and have been able to see them perfectly well in the clear 
water, state that these fish exhibit marked peculiarities in biting 
at baited hooks on a trawl. The halibut will advance to the bait, 
apparently smell of it, and then retreat four or five feet from it, 
always lying on the bottom, head toward the bait, as if watching 
it. After repeating this performance several times—generally 
three or four—the fish seems to make up its mind to eat the bait, 
and suddenly darting toward it, swallows it down with a gulp. 
The George’s hand-line fishermen believe that halibut often 
strike the baited hooks with their tails. It is not uncommon on 
board a George’sman to hear a fisherman remark: “ There’s a 
halibut around; I felt him strike my gear.” When a halibut has 
announced his presence in this way it is scarcely necessary to say 
that every effort is put forth by the fisherman to attract the fish 
to his hooks, and if a man is sufficiently skillful he generally suc- 
ceeds in capturing the fish. 
There is much rivalry in a vessel’s crew when it is known that 
halibut are on the ground where she is lying, and every known 
device is adopted to entice the fish to bite at the hooks. Strips 
of newly-caught haddock, with fresh blood still on them, are con- 
sidered the best bait. Two, three, or more of these are put on a 
hook, which is passed through the thickest end of the strips, 
while the pointed ends of the bait are left to float about in the 
= water. Where there is a tide running these closely resemble the 
movements of a small fish. The hooks are usually “pointed” with 
herring bait. After the bait is on the hooks many fishermen add 
(as they believe) to its attractiveness by mopping it in the slime 
= of a halibut, if one has been previously caught. This is done by 
_ wiping the baited hook back and forth over a halibut. The lure 
_ thus prepared, the fisherman lowers his apparatus to the bottom, 
and by a skillful manipulation tries to induce the fish to bite. 
Som he will let the tide sweep his “gear” along the bot- 
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