The Apaches of the Sea 193 



found another whole fish, a kind of lantern-fish, with lumi- 

 nous spots, fitted to live in the ocean abysses. This little fish, 

 which I called Sudis ringens, has never been seen before nor 

 since, and it is not often that any fish gets swallowed twice 

 before it is digested. 



The albacore takes the trolling line much as its larger 

 brother the tuna does. It is taken by hundreds of anglers 

 and fishermen about these islands, especially in the months 

 of June, July, August, up to December, and at Santa 

 Catalina is taken almost every month in the year, in greater 

 or less numbers. It is widely distributed through the warm 

 seas. It is common in the Mediterranean, and it certainly 

 breeds there. It goes out into the open sea, but rarely 

 reaches the West Indies. It visits many of the islands of 

 Polynesia, but we are not sure that all the albacores recorded 

 from these regions are the same in kind as ours of Cali- 

 fornia. 



The name albacore is said to be from the Arabic and to 

 mean " the pig." If we divide it al bacore, we shall see 

 that it has nothing to do with the Latin word " albus," white. 

 It should not, therefore, be written " albicore." The name 

 " alalonga " means long-winged, and its meaning is obvious. 

 Sometimes the name albacore is given to other big mackerel- 

 like fishes, as the tunny (tuna), or the bonito, but this 

 long-finned species is the one to which the name really 

 belongs. 



One of the very oldest of all the old families, flourishing 

 in the seas of the ancient Silurian times, before there were 

 land animals or true fishes or men, is the tribe of chimseras. 

 Their teeth and bones we find in the rocks with the teeth 

 of the oldest sharks, and we know that there was a time 

 when the chimsera was the highest animal that lived, the 

 prince of all the powers of the sea. Now he is fallen from 

 his high estate. The tribe is almost extinct, and the few 

 that remain skulk in the deep seas, or the cold currents, 

 hugging the bottom as if to shun notice. They are freakish 



