14 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
made, showing the number of individuals of each sex taken, and their average weight 
and length, will be found at the end of this report. 
The fishing trials made by the Albatross^ as every bank fisherman will understand, 
do not furnish positive or conclusive results with respect to the average size of the 
fish inhabiting the banks. The large cod, as a rule, are the last to be attracted by the 
bait, being “ tolled’’ around the ship by the activity of the smaller fish in finding a 
new source of food. As time was too valuable, in the case of the Albatross, to permit 
of long stops at any single position, the records concerning the size of fish taken are 
less gratifying than might have been, A length of 28 inches is taken as the standard 
size for off-shore fish on the Atlantic coast, and all under this size command a lower 
price in the markets. Out of twenty captures of cod recorded by the Albatross, the 
average size of the fish attained this standard in only six instances ; it was rarely 
below 24 inches, and generally above 25 inches. The trials were usually made during 
the progress of or subsequent to a sounding or dredging haul, the steamer often drift- 
ing with the tide and changing the ground before the lines had touched bottom. By 
anchoring, and especially by remaining some time in each position, much better results 
would undoubtedly have been obtained. 
Halibut were secured at nearly every trial; a record of their size and abun- 
dance will be found in the description of each fishing ground, and also in the tabular 
statement above referred to. 
In four trials made off TTnalashka Island, aggregating eighty-five minutes, twenty- 
two cod were taken, averaging for the several trials from 21 to 28f inches in length. 
In one instance, on Davidson Bank, twenty-five cod averaged 28 inches, and in another, 
twenty-one cod, 24^ inches. Eighteen cod captured on Sannakh Bank averaged 23J to 
25 inches in length. The cod taken off Unga, one of the Shumagin Islands, had an 
average length of 30 inches ; on Shumagin Bank, of 26^ inches, and near the Chiri- 
koff Island of 23| inches. Several trials were made on Albatross Bank, two of which 
were unusually successful. One was off Tugidak, the westernmost of the Trinity 
Islands, in 37 fathoms, where forty-seven cod were captured in thirty-eight minutes, 
and the other off Dangerous Cape, Kadiak, in 39 fathoms, where the capture amounted 
to sixty-nine cod in fifty minutes. At the former locality the fish averaged 28J inches 
in length, and at the latter 30f inches, in both instances being above the eastern 
standard. Pair after pair of cod were hauled up in quick succession at each of these 
localities, and they were seizing the bait as actively at the close of the trials as at the 
beginning. Only one large catch of cod was made on Portlock Bank, in a depth of 36 
fathoms, where thirty individuals, averaging 27 inches in length, were taken in the 
course of eighteen minutes. 
Bait. — The bait question is one that will occasion no concern at present. The 
fishermen generally have no trouble in securing, during the progress of their work, all 
the bait they need, and several species of bottom-fish, taken in connection with the 
cod, prove sufficiently attractive for the latter species. It is therefore customary, in 
fitting out, to provide only a sufficient quantity of salt herring or salt clams to make 
the first few baitings, relying thereafter upon the supply of halibut, sculpins, or pol- 
lock captured on their own hooks. The yellow-fish {Pleurogrammus monopterygius) 
is generally considered to form the best bait that can be secured in these waters ; but 
this species was not encountered by the Albatross. Sculpins, however, are regarded 
with scarcely less favor by the local fishermen, and they are everywhere abundant. 
