Trolling in Deep Water 305 



upon the rod with the left hand and give the unknown 

 the butt to the very danger point, until the rod creaks, 

 groans, and threatens to buckle, and then the unex- 

 pected happens the fish stops of its own accord ; stops 

 somewhere down in that blue abyss three hundred feet 

 away, to turn and come bounding up. 



All the tricks of the salt sea trade are his : circling, 

 sounding, sulking, bravado ; all are tried in turn. Every 

 effort is made to break the line or rod, or take the 

 angler unawares ; but all to no purpose, and in fifteen 

 minutes the gaff slips beneath it, and a fifteen-pound 

 albacore (Sermo alalunga) is taken in "out of the wet," 

 according to the boatman. 



Out go the lines again, and in a few moments another 

 bonito is hooked; this time the "skip-jack" (Gym- 

 nosarda pelamis), smaller, but quite as gamy as the large 

 bonito. When taken from the water it is a veritable 

 humming-bird in its beauty of colouring scintillating 

 in iridescent tints of all kinds. 



These fishes are ocean travellers, and found out 

 around the islands nearly the entire year. Off Santa 

 Cruz I have seen schools which fairly covered the sur- 

 face for acres ; and from the Coronados, north and south, 

 they are the common fish offshore, running with the 

 albacores and tunas, all at times forming a devastating 

 army ; charging the schools of flying-fishes, and in turn 

 being chased by the orcas, or killers, that parade up and 

 down the deep channel all summer. 



There is a fascination about this fishing ground not 



