84 FISHES OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



SUNFISH 

 (Mola mola) 



Another strange fish, very common here, is the sun- 

 fish, Fig. 39. It is shaped like a great head or face, 

 oval or round. Its tail is a rim of muscle, and its 

 dorsal and ventral fins are great spikes, making it a 

 conspicuous figure in summer asit swims along, fin 

 out of water, or lies prone on its side in the sun. Its 

 mouth is very small, with massive ivory-like teeth, 

 seemingly useless. Its skin is like sandpaper, and 

 covered with mucus, which is often phosphorescent at 

 night. These fishes grow to an enormous size. Once 

 when fishing with Colonel C. P. Morehous, with the 

 aid of his boatman, Charles Hammond, I took a sun- 

 fish which must have weighed fifteen hundred pounds. 

 We ran alongside, and, seizing the tall fin, bent it over 

 the rail, gaffing the monster before it woke up, though 

 a terrific struggle ensued which almost wrecked our 

 launch. So huge was this fish that our launch could 

 not tow it, and only by the aid of another launch did 

 we manage to tow it into port. I had an excellent op- 

 portunity to observe the fish's methods of swimming, 

 and later released it uninjured. 



The young of the sunfish are very singular creatures 

 not resembling the adult. I have had my boat sur- 

 rounded by scores of six- or eight-pounders, and their 

 continual leaping was a source of much interest. Cap- 

 tain Farnsworth caught one which was estimated at 

 half a ton. Mr. McMillan took one almost equally 

 large. I have gaffed them in the Atlantic, and had a 

 hand in the capture of one at the mouth of the St. 

 Johns River, Florida, which must have weighed three- 



