THE ANIMALS OF THE ISLANDS 201 



others of the Tuna Club have demonstrated. There 

 is a leaping shark at Santa CataHna, which affords 

 good sport, and I have seen the bonito shark fling 

 itself five feet into the air. Interesting shark-fishing 

 can be had at the head of Catalina Harbor in July 

 and August. This fish is a beautifully marbled oil- 

 shark. I have taken specimens weighing over 

 sixty pounds with a light rod and had them jump 

 several feet, and many times. This was all beach 

 fishing. The bait, a large fish or several pounds of 

 fish, was towed out into the channel and dropped, 

 and when the strike came the fish played up and down 

 the beach. 



Large rays are frequently taken at the various 

 islands, and several years ago a big manta was reported 

 as having been seen off Santa Barbara in the channel, 

 where the fishing is often fast and furious. Harry 

 Elms, an old resident of Avalon, once told me that he 

 thought he saw one in the Santa Catalina Channel, 

 but one has never been taken there. 



I have recently received word from Mr. C. G. Conn, 

 cruising in his yacht Comfort in the Gulf of California, 

 to the effect that he has succeeded in taking a large 

 sea bat or ray, which is the record, being twenty-four 

 feet long, twenty feet wide, and weighing 2652 pounds, 

 or over a ton. Mr. Conn says: 



"Herewith please find some photographs of a big sea bat 

 we caught at San Lucas Bay. It was a great fight. Murphy 

 witnessed the conflict and says it was better than a three-ring 

 circus. We used a thirty-gallon barrel for a buoy to keep the 

 fish from going to sea or from sinking to great depths. The 

 buoy was fastened to about one hundred and fifty feet of rope, 

 the other end of which was bent onto the staff of a harpoon. 



