26 Fish Stories 



ervation, in a piece of kelp. One side of it was nearly torn 

 off, and the other side was decayed." 



The present writer furnished this account of the capture 

 of oar-fishes in Southern California to Dr. Jordan: 



" From a zoological point of view, the island of Santa 

 Catalina, which lies eighteen miles off the coast of Los An- 

 geles County, Southern California, is very interesting, many 

 rare animals being found there. Every winter the dwellers of 

 the island find numbers of argonaut-shells, and several living 

 specimens have been secured, one for a time living in the 

 aquarium which is maintained here for the benefit of 

 students and the entertainment of visitors. A number of 

 rare and interesting fishes wander inshore from time to time. 

 Several years ago I found various Scopeloid fishes, which, 

 up to that time, had been considered rare; and during the 

 past few years I have seen one oar-fish alive, while another 

 was brought to me dead. From reports I judge that a num- 

 ber of these very rare fishes have been observed here. The 

 first was of small size, not over two feet in length, and was 

 discovered swimming in shallow water along the beach of 

 Avalon Bay. I had an opportunity to observe the radiant 

 creature before it died. Its * topknot ' — it can be compared 

 to nothing else — was a vivid red or scarlet mass of seeming 

 plumes, the dorsal fins, which merged into a long dorsal fin, 

 extending to the tail. The color of the body was a brilliant 

 silver sheen, splashed with equally vivid black zebra-like 

 stripes, which gave the fish a most striking appearance. 



" The fish was a fragile and delicate creature, a very ghost 

 of a fish, which swam along, where the water gently laved 

 the sands, with an undulatory motion, looking like one of its 

 names — the ribbon-fish. The fortunate finder of this speci- 

 men could not be persuaded to give it up or sell it, and it 

 was its fate to be pasted upon a piece of board, dried in the 

 sun as a ' curio,' where, as if in retaliation at the desecra- 

 tion of so rare a specimen, it soon disappeared. 



*' This, apparently, was the first oar-fish ever seen in the 



