The Halibut 369 



resistant. The fish, which was the bastard hali- 

 but, Paralichthys californicus, weighed between 

 fifty and sixty pounds, was three and a half feet in 

 length, a fine specimen of this genus common 

 about the islands, though rarely caught of this 

 size, possibly because bottom-fishing is seldom 

 indulged in here except by professional fisher- 

 men on the so-called grouper banks. At Cata- 

 lina Harbor, a California fjord, Empire Landing, 

 and a few localities on the west coast, it can 

 always be found. At San Clemente, twenty 

 miles to the southwest, it is also common, and it 

 is also taken at Coronado, in the bay, at La 

 Jolla, San Juan, Monterey, in fact anywhere 

 alongshore where shallow and protected water is 

 found. The young fishes, when lying on the 

 sandy bottom, so simulate it that it is almost 

 impossible to distinguish them. I have taken 

 them from the beach with an eight-ounce split 

 bamboo, and found the sport enjoyable. 



Of all fishes this group is perhaps the quaint- 

 est. When young they swim upright, as do 

 others, but as they grow they fall over and lie 

 flat, the lower side turning white as the pigment 

 is found unnecessary, and then comes a change 

 which, in its seeming impossibility, equals the 



2B 



