Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1893-03-03
THE HALlBUT.
ABIG FOOD FISH THAT is GROW
ING SCARCE.
Where and How the Halibut 4
Caught---Th Female Much
Larger Than the Male-A
Fish's migratory Eye"

vessels fitted out at this port,
says the New York Tribune.
1t taxes them three or four weeks 10
make the round trip. A trawl line .s
used by the fishermen, that is, line
1000 to 1000 feet long, with hooks
twelve to eighteen inches apart. These
hooks are baited with herring. One END
! of the line is anchored and tho other end
is buoyed with small key. The line is
lifted every six hours. Generally it Is
found that each trawl line will have
hanging to it from ten to twenty-five
pounds each. The fish are taken on the
smack, eviscerated and packed in the
icc-houses aboard.
The male halibut rarely exceeds fifty
pounds in weight, but the female will
/ pull down the scales ut 100 or $50
pounds usually. There is Il tradition of
halibut having been caught off Portland,
Me-, that weighed 600 pounds, and a
New England myth to the effect that o
bold Gloucester seafarer once brought in
halibut that was ten feet long and
weighed 720 pounds. These two hall
butts, it is believed, existed only in the
Imagination of Gloucester bankers. a
fish that will weigh 800 pounds will be
between seven aud eight feet long and
! nearly four feet wide. "The largest.
halibut 1 ever saw in Fulton Market"
said Mr.. Blackford, weighed 80
! pounds" A fat female halibut of about
eighty pounds is what the mar1etmcn
like, one that will cut up into choice
halibut steaks. People luxurious in
their tastes buy the young fish, the
chicken halibut, weighing six or seven
pounds. All the large halibut are gray
on the undersside and are called gray
halibut, while the best fish is pure white.
The halibut, say the fishermen, who
voyage toward the waters of ice foes.
and mountainous bergs in pursuit OF it,
Is migratory fish that keeps in schools
like porpoiscs. In pursuit of herring
the fish often run into the herring nets
of the Gloucester fishermen. They are
large-mouthed, sharp.toothed, voracious,
wild and active. They feed on fish of
all kinds, crabs aud mollusks. These.
they waylay, lying on the bottom, their
fiat bodies and gray color rendering them
almost indistinguishable from the mud
of the ocean. Their magnificent digestion
would be the envy of a dyspeptic. Live
Holsters six inches long have been taken
| from their stomachs, likewise cubic
| foot of wood, an accordion key, pieces
of iron, etc. Like the whale a halibut
will kill its prey with blows of its tail.
But he "gets move on" when q whale
or shark, his deadly enemies, dashes
into school. Halibut taken often have
sides furrowed and SCARED by the teeth.
of that terror of the deep, the shark
Now that the Unsuitable appetite OF the
human race has thinned out the schools
of halibut in the North Atlantic and is
| driving what remain to the deeper seas
beyond the continental slopes, market.
men are looking to other waters for their
supplies. Halibut from, the Pacific
Ocean, selling in Fulton Market, are moi
uncommon these days. As yet they are
abundant in the Pacific north of the
State of Washington. On that coast
Cape Flattery is at present the most
prominent fishing point for halibut, and
large catches are taken there during July
and August. Steam vessels are fitted
out from Tacoma and Seattle, which
make the trip to the halibut grounds and
return in three days. The steamers paw
native fisherman one cent a pound for
their catch. The steamers run the fish
to Tacoma and Seattle, and thence they
are shipped by rail to the principal cities
of the Paciic Coast.
One of the peculiarities of the hnlibnt,
as member in good standing of the fat
fish family, which long caused scientists
and biologists to wonder, was the emil
gratory eYe." When n fat fish is born
he swims edgrwse aud has an eye like
other fish on each side of his snout, but
later on in life he is found lying on his
side while both eyes are on the same side.
of the nose. Biologists and fishermen
long argued the question whether the.
"other eye" travelled around the nose to
the company of its mate or whether it
took short cut and worked its way
through the ish's head. 1t seems finally
to have been demonstrated to the satis.
faction of the biologists, but not to that
of the fishermen, that the migrating eye
travelled over and around the nose.