The Rise of Don Antonio 243 



who perhaps wears the blue button of the Tuna Club, 

 turns to the black sea-bass, that giant of the tribe, that 

 is peculiar to the Kuroshiwo, where it flows by the 

 kelp-lined shores of Southern California. A fierce war 

 has always raged in the vale of Avalon, where it 

 opens into the summer sea, over the respective qualities 

 of this bass, ponderous enough to be the Atlas of the 

 fishes and 



Sustain the spacious heavens 



of the sea. 



A few choice spirits, doughty knights of the rod 

 and I will not gainsay their skill and prowess, bear the 

 standard of this fish on their escutcheons and claim 

 that it is the hardest-fighting game of these waters, the 

 superior of the tuna or any of the great conquistadores 

 of the angling arena. In the Tuna Club they have 

 their black sea-bass cups, on which their winning names 

 and the ponderous weights of their catches are en- 

 graved ; their linked gold badges, worn proudly at 

 annual banquets; and, like all minorities, they claim the 

 world as theirs. As each season larger fishes in both 

 classes tuna and black sea-bass are caught, the ten- 

 sion becomes more acute. The boatmen side with their 

 employers, and so, by virtue of his patron, Don Antonio 

 became an advocate of his big bass, and in his way 

 fought its battles with the tuna gaffers, and bore their 

 gibes and scorn with easy philosophy. " Los paises del 

 sol dilatan et alma," he once retorted to his disputant, 



