196 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



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

 The anchovies are very numerous in San Francisco Bay, 

 where they try to keep in shoals by themselves, but do not 

 succeed, and are caught with other small fishes in nets. They 

 are fully equal to the European anchovy, and may become an 

 important article of commerce. At present, most of those 

 taken are eaten fresh, and only a few are potted. They are 

 caught at all seasons of the year. Sardines are also abundant, 

 and of a flavor equal to those on the coast of France, but 

 larger. They are found in all the bays along the coast, from 

 May to October. An attempt was made several years ago to 

 pickle sardines for the market, but it failed. The herring is 

 not abundant on the coast of California, or at least is not 

 found here in such dense shoals as in the Atlantic, and our 

 species is smaller. It is caught with a net in the shallow 

 waters of the bays. Shrimps are caught in the shallow waters 

 of the bay of San Francisco with small mesh-nets, but are be- 

 coming very scarce. The sturgeon visits the rivers of the At- 

 lantic States, for only a couple of months in a year, but it is 

 abundant in the Californian rivers at all seasons. It never 

 bites, the mouth being a round hole, always open, surrounded 

 with gristle. In the Eastern States the sturgeon is often har- 

 pooned, but here it is caught only with nets. The meat is 

 coarse, and is sold at one-fourth or one-sixth the price de- 

 manded for the meat of other fishes. The sturgeon might be 

 salted, but nothing has been done in that business yet. An 

 attempt was made several years ago in San Francisco to estab- 

 lish the business of preparing caviare from the roe of the stur- 

 geon, but it did not prove profitable, and it was abandoned. 

 Sea-bass, a fish of fine, delicate flavor, and highly prized by 

 epicures, is caught with hand-lines outside the heads of San 

 Francisco Bay, and in the bay near Saucelito, with nets during 

 the spring and summer. It is not abundant. The sheeps- 

 head, an excellent fish, is caught off Santa Barbara with hand- 

 lines during the summer. It should be brought to the mar- 



