326 Reminiscences of 



but they were evidently at the time good-natured. 

 I was relieved when they passed on, and they appar- 

 ently gave us small regard. 



Think of the immense amount of food daily re- 

 quired by a band of one hundred and fifty of these 

 pirates, and how bountiful it must be, but there are 

 hundreds of thousands of porpoises, seals and lions 

 waiting for them. Fifty tons of food would no 

 more than give a good meal for one hundred and 

 fifty killers. 



I had before reeled up my line, as successful troll- 

 ing for salmon was of the past, and there were no 

 more salmon caught there for several days. In 

 fact, the killers ended up the good fishing for the 

 season. 



Among the owners of market fishing boats, and 

 fishermen at Monterey where there are quite a 

 large number, as the station is one of first import- 

 ance in supplying the state demands are a number 

 of interesting personalities: old whalers, sailors and 

 sea rangers. Most of them are Italians and Portu- 

 guese, with a motley variety of Americans, Swedes, 

 Norwegians and Mexicans, down to the industrious 

 Chinese. The latter are much by themselves, and 

 confined mostly to near-shore ground fishing, and 

 netting of squids, shrimps and small fish. They 

 have almost exclusively the gathering of the large 

 abalones found on the coast between the shores of 

 Monterey and Carmelo, which are gathered at low 

 tide. The abalone shells are in demand for the beauti- 

 ful iridescent colors shown on the inner surface, and 

 the meats are dried in the sun for export to China, 

 with shrimps, squid and small fishes. 



