"The Days of a Man 



1880 



The 



Hagfish 



Mission 



San 



Carlos 



-spearing little blennies and sculpins with a sharpened, 

 three-tined fork. Needless to say, the water seemed 

 warmer than it now does to either of us! 



At Monterey we found a species of Hagfish 

 Polistotrema stouti in considerable abundance. This 

 eel-shaped, slimy creature, plum color and about 

 a foot long, is persona non grata with its neighbors. 

 Its habits are bad. Fastening its sucker-like mouth 

 with rasping teeth within the gill opening of a large 

 fish, it gnaws into the body, devouring all the mus- 

 cular system of its "host" and reducing it to a mere 

 hulk. Many large fishes, flounders and rockfish es- 

 pecially, are taken in this sad plight. When the 

 victim finally dies, the parasite makes its escape; 

 and sometimes when a poor wreck is hauled up 

 in a net, the pirate may be observed thrusting its 

 eyeless head from out the hole, and then plumping 

 incontinently into the water in search of a new 

 boarding house. 



In the Monterey region we investigated (among 

 other places) the little Bay of Carmel, not far from 

 which stands the old Mission of "San Carlos Bor- 

 romeo in Carmelo," overlooking the mouth of the 

 fertile and beautiful valley of the Carmel River. 

 The roof of the picturesque church then falling into 

 ruins its beams having been made of the perish- 

 able Monterey pine was being restored by the 

 devoted Father Casanova, at the expense of Mrs. 

 Leland Stanford. At that same time also Mrs. 

 Stanford set up on the hill above the spot where, in 

 1603, Vizcaino landed and celebrated mass under a 

 live oak, a monument to Padre Junipero Serra, 

 founder of most of the California Missions. 

 C 212 ] 



