A BOOK OF FISHING STORIES 



row me to the Isthmus, now Cabrillo, twelve or fifteen miles 

 up the island, where we trolled around Ship Rock and in the 

 attractive coves of that region, then south alongshore and home 

 by six o'clock, always with a dozen yellowtails from 25 to 

 30 lb. more or less, all taken with the despised rod and 

 reel. 



For forty years Joe had lived on Santa Catalina, but not 

 always as a boatman. For some time he acted for the govern- 

 ment, excavating on the sites of the ancient towns of the 

 island, and in this way he collected many strange objects that 

 told the story of the ancient islanders. In the sixteenth century, 

 all the islands off the coast of Southern California had a large 

 and vigorous population. The great Spanish captain, Vis- 

 caino, found them here, and told an interesting story of their 

 life. The natives were a race of fishermen, and in a vast mound, 

 half a mile long and formerly from five to ten feet high, at San 

 Nicolas Island, were found all the tools of their trade, showing 

 them to be fishermen. The fishing-lines were the long slender 

 vines of kelp, evidently oiled or treated in some way. Sinkers 

 were made from the ledges of steatite or verde antique on the 

 island. Mexican Joe took me to the quarry where I saw half- 

 formed mortars and ollas. Here was an ancient hook manu- 

 factory, possibly several thousand years old, but evidently 

 carried on within the last three hundred years. The hooks 

 were made from the shell of the haliotis, or abalone, a mollusc 

 that constituted the chief food of these ancient fishermen. 

 A piece was broken out, then the maker began to bore a hole 

 in the shell, using a stone awl. When the hole was half an 



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