Fishing at Cataluia fsiand, Lcnvcr California. 



119 



and exciting sport he ever beheld. 

 That the Major was absolutely worn 

 out when it ended, and every fibre of 

 his body quivered as with the ague. 

 This is the first jewfish ever taken in 

 this manner on this coast. Major Viele, 

 who has spent several seasons m Flor- 

 ida, sa3^s that tarpon fishing- can not be 

 compared with jewfishing. 



One day I was sailing in a small boat 

 at least five miles from Avalon, when 

 an immense school of tunnies (horse 

 mackerels) came on us. This fish is 

 often mistaken for a porpoise, and 

 weighs from 150 to 300 lbs. I think one 

 thousand acres or inore of the ocean's 

 surface was covered with them ; they 

 came all around us. In its sport a tunny 

 will leap out of the water ten to fifteen 

 feet, turn a somersault and come down 

 with a great splash. In a leap of this 

 kind one nearly landed on our boat. 

 The noise they made in plunging 

 through the surface of the waters sound- 

 ed like the beating of a heavy surf on 

 a rough coast. The fishermen say they 

 cannot be hooked. However, one seized 



Prof. Holder's bait and simply walked 

 ofif with it, taking the rod from his 

 hands, the Professor finally letting go 

 when he saw that to stay with it longer 

 meant his going overboard. 



Fishing near Avalon is usually done 

 from steam launches that will carry 

 from a dozen to twenty-five people. 



This article is already too long. Were 

 it not so, I .should be glad to tell you of 

 a trip to vSan Clemento, made from 

 Avalon by a party of which I was a 

 member, on which, in one day, we cap- 

 tured 1,200 lbs. of eatable fish. Of the 

 chowder we prepared, the fish we fried, 

 the drinks we drank, the swordfish and 

 sharks we saw, the great turtle and im- 

 mense eels, and the magnificent crop of 

 sunburn we got up. And when we 

 contemplate the sunburned nose, the 

 peeling hands and well scorched ears, 

 we turn with a sigh of relief to the 

 trout stream, with its cooling shade and 

 limpid waters, its hanging rocks and 

 clinging ferns, its flitting wrens and 

 nimble tom-tits, its riffles, falls and 

 swirling pools. 



