OTHER BRANCHES OP INDUSTRY. 315 



Indians, sell fresh salmon during the season when fishing with 

 the net is prohibited. There is no legal prohibition against 

 taking other lish, or shell-fish at any season of the year. 



The halibut are not sufiiciently abundant on the coast to 

 make the fishery for them a distinct branch of business. They 

 are caught with a hook at sea in water varying from thirty to 

 fifty fathoms deep, on rocky bottoms. The line called a " trawl- 

 line" is about six hundred yards along, with numerous shoit 

 lines and hooks, and is left six or eight hours in a place, and 

 when drawn up has halibut, flounders, rock-fish, turbot, cod, 

 and nearly all the large biting fish that come to the market. 

 The bait used is chiefly sardines and herrings. 



The mackerel [Scomber cUego), a good fish, but smaller than 

 the Atlantic mackerel, is caught with a hook ofl" the coast 

 south of Point Conception. It is a surface fish, and bites 

 greedily at a bit of white rag or shining fish-skin jerked 

 through the water. It does not frequent bays, but is caught 

 in the harbors of Catalina Island. A number of vessels are 

 now employed in the mackerel fishery of California. 



The httle brown rock-fish (Sebastes auriculatus)^ is caught 

 in San Francisco Bay about the wharves ; but the other 

 species are only found out in the open sea. They stay 

 where the bottom is rocky, eat crabs and shell-fish, and bite 

 freely at hooks. Most of them are caught near Punta Reyes 

 and the Farallone Islands. The rock-fish are in the market 

 and of equally good quality throughout the year. 



The turbot is caught with the trawl-line throughout the 

 year. Soles are caught with small mesh-nets in the shallow 

 waters of the bay of San Francisco at all seasons of the year. 

 There is no separate fishery for them ; they are caught with 

 numerous other species of small fishes, among which the 

 smelts have an important place". The smelts are much more 

 abundant than on the Atlantic coast, go in large shoals, and 

 are cauglit at all seasons. A large business might be done in 

 salting them, but they are caught only for the fresh market. 

 The anchovies are very numerous in San Francisco Bay, where 



