THE HALIBUT 
410 
Arctic Circle, and return loaded with Halibut to 
within three feet of their deck-beams. 
On the Pacific coast, according to Dr. T. H. 
Bean, the Common Halibut ranges from the Far- 
allone Islands, opposite San Francisco, to Bering 
Strait, its centre of abundance being found in 
the Gulf of Alaska, near Kodiak. 
In point of size this fish is surpassed in our 
waters by no other good food fish, the 500-pound 
jewfishes being out of that class. A large 
Halibut is one which weighs 250 pounds or more. 
The largest of reliable record (at least from 
our waters) was observed by Captain Atwood, 
at Provincetown, Massachusetts. It weighed 401 
pounds gross (we are thankful for that odd one 
pound!) and 322 pounds dressed. Dr. G. Brown 
Goode states that a Halibut weighing 350 pounds 
is from 7 to 8 feet long, by nearly 4 feet wide. 
The roe of a fish weighing nearly 200 pounds, 
which was caught at a depth of 200 fathoms, in 
water only 4° above freezing point, weighed 17 
pounds, 2 ounces. A careful calculation made 
at the laboratory of the United States Bureau of 
Fisheries showed that the number of eggs in 
the mass was about 2,182,773. 
The Halibut catch in twelve months of 1898-9 
amounted to a total of nineteen million pounds, 
having a market value of $797,222, and all cred- 
ited to Maine, Massachusetts, Washington and 
Oregon. 
