THE WHITE SEA BASS 325 



he found that the fish were, at least in his opinion, far 

 ahead of the salmon in point of gameness and strength; 

 and none of those which he landed weighed less than 

 eighty pounds. They took the mullet bait at once, 

 and as soon as hooked dashed seaward in splendid 

 play, taking yards of line from the protesting reel. 

 The angler was obliged to run the fish down the beach, 

 often at full speed, to save his tackle; then the splendid 

 game would turn and come bounding up the little bay, 

 now glistening in the sunlight, now half exposed, fight- 

 ing hard, striving for liberty. For half an hour the 

 struggle would continue, then the fish would come in 

 slowly, protesting at every turn of the reel, to tip the 

 scales at eighty pounds. 



The bass is nearly five feet long, dark brown with 

 iridescent tints above and silvery below; shaped very 

 much like a salmon, so resembling it that the adven- 

 turers who have gone down to this part of the country 

 have reported salmon-fishing, mistaking the white sea 

 bass for it. This fish has been named for Marshal 

 Macdonald, U. S. Fish Commissioner, and is known as 

 Macdonald's white sea bass. In April, 1909, I fished 

 for them and took small ones with a spoon off Ciari 

 Island at Tobari Bay off the Yaqui Valley, Sonora, 

 with Major F. R. Burnham. 



Almost the same fish are found on the entire coast 

 of South California, coming into the bays, at San Luis 

 and Monterey, and are caught in numbers at all the 

 islands from Santa Barbara south. At Santa Cata- 

 lina, owing to the fact that here is a town, with daily 

 boats, hotels, and all the conveniences for fishing, the 

 sport may be enjoyed the most; but the fish is so 

 peculiar in its coming and going that the angler who 



