CHAPTER V 



ON THE TRAIL OF A MOONFISH 



FOR several days those who go down to the 

 sea in ships on dark nights had reported 

 having seen in the little bay, patches of fire, as 

 though the full moon, which rose over the Sierras 

 to the east, had fallen from her high estate and 

 was wandering about in the kelp beds or among 

 the " dark, unfathomed caves " which character- 

 ize the channel islands of California. Some 

 stated that these globes were four or five feet 

 across, and the reports were so numerous and 

 positive that even discounting them fifty per 

 cent., as the scientific evidences of a layman, it 

 was apparent that some extraordinary animal 

 had arrived, nothing very remarkable here, as 

 the waters of the lower part of California appear 

 to be common ground for a strange variety of 

 fishes. 



The newcomer was described as the moon her- 

 self, with all her luminous splendor, scintillating 

 with phosphorescent glare; now at the full, a 

 perfect oval, ablaze with light, moving slowly 



along, then as suddenly becoming less and less 



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