CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ALASKA. 97 



way back to the Pacific. Many times I have seen huge Halibut (Hippoglossus vulgaris), lying like 

 large flagstones beneath the lower stratum of fish, waiting for one to come within reach. Without 

 moving a great distance I could see over a dozen Halibut at a time. I estimated the weight of 

 some of the larger ones to be not less than three hundred and fifty pounds. 



The natives of Atkha repair to this place and have several turf houses of small size built there. 

 It is also a garden spot where a few vegetables, such as radishes, turnips, and a few potatoes are 

 planted. To attend to their gardens and to be near the fishing-grounds the Aleuts of many places 

 have built these summer villages and call them Layt nili. Here assemble all the old men not 

 able to hunt and the children and women of the hunters gone off on a summer's cruise for sea-otters. 

 These lay in a store of dried and salted fish for their sons and friends. I made several visits to 

 this place to learn the habits of the fish. 



The natives obtain the greater number of the fish in the following manner. Each man has a 

 two-holed bidarka (canoe). In it a small boy sits in the front hole while the old man sits in the 

 rear hole. The man uses a pole of several feet in length (generally not less than 12 feet long), on 

 which is firmly secured a hook of iron, having a flattened point with a sharp edge and a notch 

 filed on the inner side to act as a barb. When the canoe arrives at the place the boy is ordered 

 to seize hold of a strong frond of the Giant Kelp, which streams out sometimes for over a hundred 

 feet, and among which the fish are most abundant. After coming thus to anchor, the man care- 

 fully thrusts the pole into the water, and if the fish are plentiful he will soon feel them surging 

 against it. He now begins to jerk it up and down in the water to gig any fish that may come 

 along. In a few seconds he brings one out. The work now becomes exciting, for scarcely has the 

 pole been again thrust in the water than it is jerked into another fish. A man may thus, in a couple 

 of hours, take two to three hundred fish. After the canoe is loaded it is taken to the shore, where 

 the women slit open the back of the fish, take off the head, clean out the entrails, and with a cut on 

 each side, the backbone is removed to the tail. The two sides of the fish are left hanging together 

 by the tail. This is to enable the fish to be hung over a pole to dry. Often the men bring the fish 

 directly to the principal village and clean them there, though this is done more often when the 

 fish are to be salted. At the season between June 25th and July 25th the fish are extremely fat from 

 the abundance of a small crustacean, which has previously come in myriads to the same places as 

 these fish. The fish which are to be dried are usually taken about the 1st of August, as they are 

 so fat before that time that I have seen the oil drip from the drying fish. They also, from the 

 presence of the oil, become rancid in a short time, and are said not to keep so well. 



At Attu Island I also had an excellent opportunity for studying the habits of these fish. At 

 this place the fish are most abundant at the entrance to Chichagof Harbor on the northeast shoul- 

 der of the island. Several islets and many reefs are disposed nearly across the entrance to the 

 harbor. Between these the tide currents run with great velocity. An abundance of large kelp 

 patches is found in the vicinity. The fish arrive at Attu, from the southwestward, about the 24th 

 of April, though this date values according to the openuess of the season. It is rarely later than 

 the 1st of May. The fish come at first in a straggling manner, and their first appearauce is made 

 known by their being caught on hooks while the meu are fishing for other kinds. The first comers 

 are usually nearly adult males. They are not fat on arrival, but soon become so from the abundance 

 of small crustaceans that fairly swarm among the patches of sea- weed by the 10th of May ; and at 

 which time the fish are tolerably numerous. By the 10th of June thousands of these fish can be 

 seen in the shallow water (about one and a half to eight fathoms deep) below. The natives here take 

 considerable quantities of these fish, and dry them for use at an early date. They rarely salt them, 

 for reason that, they state, this fish makes the consumer thirsty. When they go to catch them they 

 the visit the various localities known to be the haunts of these fish, and by looking beneath the mass 

 of kelp fronds can see them if present; if not, the fish are off in the open water. They then watch 

 every floating piece of detached sea- weed. It is constantly turning round and round like in an eddy 

 of water. The fish are playing with it, and there will be found au abundance. The gaff is quickly 

 thrust into the water, and one is soon struck and brought out. 



I here had opportunity to come to the conclusion that these fish will bite readily at the hook. 

 I saw them jump and struggle to get at the gaff and could feel them strike against it while it was 

 S. Mis. 155 13 



