216 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



was emphasized by a number of anglers, including Mr. 

 Strafford of Pasadena, who in a sea-going launch were 

 haunting the clear, smooth waters off the southwest 

 lee of the Government island of San Clemente, near 

 Coronado. They were trolling, with two rods out, 

 one to starboard, and one to port, when, without warn- 

 ing, they came upon the school of yellow-fin tunas, 

 whose vast numbers made a strange tide rip. There 

 was no waiting. Ze-e-e-e-e! went the reels, and one 

 hundred, two hundred feet of line went screaming, 

 hissing downward; and the two men held their 

 resilient rods, which bent and swayed in their hands 

 like reeds shaken by a wind. The rush was mag- 

 nificent for about twenty seconds, then came a lull, 

 deadly and ominously sudden, and two men reeled 

 in their lines as a shark, certainly fifteen feet in 

 length, rose and shook a big yellow-fin tuna literally 

 in their faces. The sun flashed on it for a second, 

 then the blue waters, now dyed a deep incarnadine, 

 subsided. 



The onslaught of the shark drove the school several 

 hundred yards away, where it was again picked up, 

 and as soon as the sardine bait crossed it a tuna was 

 hooked. Indeed, the fishes fought for it, boiling along 

 the surface, the victor dashing down to the measure of 

 the singing reel ; but the moment the fish left the school 

 and entered the region below, two or three hulking 

 big sharks darted ahead, and up into the air went the 

 tuna quivering in the light, its Midas-like tints flashing, 

 to fall back into the jaws of the shark. This time the 

 shark swallowed the tuna, hook and all, and the angler, 

 in fierce disgust, out of patience, struck, and struck 

 hard. 



