27 
cases they weigh over 100 lbs. dressed, and are very sweet, 
a In lat. 54° 20, long. 1G2° 30, about nine miles south-east from 
the Sanak leef, we got bottom in thirty-five fathoms, rock and 
barnacles being brought up by the lead. In nearly this last 
locality Cook caught over one hundred halibut* ranging from 
twenty to one hundred pounds each; he therefore applied the 
name of Halibut island to it.” — Davidson. 
The keen, searching fishermen from California and Washing¬ 
ton Territory, have for several years past fished on these grounds ; 
in Bristol Bay and around the Shumagins they have found cod 
and halibut very plenty ; the business has been fairly tried with 
piofitable results. u Next to the fur-trade, in its legitimate 
pursuit, the fisheries off the coast of the new territory will prove 
tne most valuable and certain ; in fact, I consider them the most 
important acquisition to our Pacific coast. As the banks of 
Newfoundland have been to the trade of the Atlantic, so will- 
tlie greater banks of Alaska be to the Pacific, inexhaustible in 
supply of fish that are equal, if not superior in size and quality 
to those of the Atlantic ; and the pursuit there of developing a 
race of seamen yearly decreasing, as our steam marine, merchant 
and naval, is increasing. We have the reiterated and disinte¬ 
rested statements of all the old navigators and fur-traders, that 
every part of the coast abounds in cod, halibut, salmon, and 
every variety of fish inhabiting comparatively cold waters, and 
the experience of the present expedition establishes the truthful¬ 
ness of their descriptions. But the most valuable fish on the 
coast-is the cod, and so far as ascertained, it has already been 
very profitable to those interested in it. . . . The waters 
between the Alaska peninsula and the Shumagin islands are 
well protected from the heavy swell of the Pacific. All the 
California fishing vessels now resort to the grounds about the 
Shumagins, where fish are very plentiful and superior to those 
in the Ochotsk Sea. Among the islands are very good harbors ; 
fresh water is everywhere readily obtained, and some drift-wood 
for fuel may be collected along the shores. But the greatest 
advantage is, that vessels when fishing may always lie under the 
lee of some one of the numerous high islands, thus making 
fishing a much more comfortable business than when riding out 
in the open sea. The kind of bait used here is salted herrings 
from San Francisco, and halibut and sculpinsv caught on the 
ground.” — Davidson. 
