CHAPTER XII 



THE CALIFORNIA SHEEPSHEAD 



" Out in the golden sunshine, 

 Throw we the net and line. 

 The silvery lines to-day 

 Flash in the silvery spray. 

 So throw the line, throw-yo, heave-ho ! " 



MERIVALE. The Fisherman's Song. 



THE region represented on the map by South- 

 ern California and its contiguous high seas is 

 supposed by many to be a land of perennial sum- 

 mer, and to a certain extent this is true. The 

 summer alongshore is a comfortable season, 

 cooler than that of any Atlantic state ; the winter 

 a cooler summer, when the mercury drops into 

 the roaring thirties and wild flowers insist upon 

 coming into bloom. It is not a real winter, yet 

 certain fishes, creatures of habit, insist upon their 

 prerogative and make this floral, verdant winter 

 an excuse for following the ancient and honored 

 custom of their confreres in other and colder seas; 

 in a word, they migrate. 



