g^O CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



All this time the angler had expected to see a shark 

 dash at the game and take it, but the luck was all 

 the other way, and the yellow-fin, always a gallant 

 fighter, came slowly to the gaff and was lifted in to 

 receive its quietus just an hour and a quarter from the 

 time it was hooked. 



The great tuna, Thunnus thynnus, is a noble fish as 

 seen in its native element, swimming at the head of 

 an angle of solid compact fishes, after the fashion of 

 geese; but its cousin, this Thunnus maculatus, the tuna 

 of the yellow fin, of the lemon hues, is more attractive, 

 more social. It has the habit of the albacore or the 

 long-fin, and bonito, and consorts with them, rather 

 than with the big tuna; and among the most beauti- 

 ful visions it has been my good fortune to see, is that 

 of this yellow-fin in the Santa Catalina Channel of 

 Southern California, playing about the boat. During 

 the summer of 1906 hundreds were taken with rod 

 and reel, but in September, 1907, I fished and fished 

 again for them, as did others; but few were taken, and 

 I failed to obtain even a strike. If anything more 

 exasperating than the action of these splendid and 

 cunning fishes, which I place in the first rank of 

 cleverness, has been seen (with perhaps the exception 

 of the gray snapper), I have failed to learn it. We 

 were in the launch of Mr. Thomas McDaniel Potter, 

 in perfectly smooth water, so clear that one seemed 

 to be looking down into the very heart of a blue tour- 

 maline, and the most delicate and diaphanous forms 

 could be seen fifty or sixty feet below. 



This tuna, as are others, is often taken by trolling, 

 but the yellow-fin is a social fellow; he hovers about 

 somewhere below and can be taken by casting from the 



