OiHER BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY. 317 



hook or harpoon. It spends most of its time at the bottom in 

 both deep and shoal water, but frequently comes to the surface, 

 and according to report sleeps there. It also goes into lagoons, 

 and likes to be near the kelp. They grow very large, some- 

 times to weigh five hundred pounds, and as their flesh is very 

 good, a profitable business might be made of fishing for them. 



Sharks are taken by Chinamen for food and by Americans 

 for their oil. The common sharks caught by the Chinamen, 

 perhaps more properly called " dog-fish"" [Acanthea sucJdeyi 

 and Triakis fasciatus)^ are taken in nets during the summer 

 months and are dried in the sun. They are from tliree to five 

 feet loHg, and contain a large amount of meat, which is never 

 eaten by white men, but seems to have favor among the 

 Mongols. The fish is cut open by a dexterous and quick 

 stroke of a large knife along the back-bone, and is then dried 

 vvdthout the use of salt. The fins are considered a delicacy. 

 In Humboldt Bay the true shark {N^otorhynchus maculatus)^ 

 from five to twelve feet in length, is taken with spears. Three 

 men have a flat-bottomed boat twenty feet long and four feet 

 wide, with which they go into the shallow waters of the bay, 

 whither the sharks resort in pursuit of the sardines. The 

 liver is taken from the shark and the remainder thrown away. 

 Each liver yields from one to eight pounds of oil. The spears 

 have a handle eight feet long, which is loose and comes out 

 of the spear-head after the shark is struck. If the handle Avere 

 fastened in the spear-head, it would be broken by the struggles 

 of the fish. A rope attached to the spear-head suffices to hold 

 the sliark, and by its means he is drawn up to the side of the 

 boat, where he is struck by an axe on the head, and thus 

 dispatched. The shark season lasts only about two months, 

 during July and August. The oil is used for lubricating the 

 machinery of the saw-mills about the bay, and sells for one 

 dollar per gallon ; and so long as the season lasts the fisher- 

 men make from five to ten dollars per day. 



§ 230. Hunting. — The principal game quadrupeds and birds 

 of California are grizzly bear, elk, deer, antelope, hare, rabbit ; 



