CHAPTER XVIII 



THE MADNESS OF FISHES 



A" certain times various predatory fishes seem to 

 go mad from the excitement of the chase. 

 Once when lying at the island of San Nicolas, 

 in the Pacific, I saw a large school of yellowtails dash 

 into a little cove, Corral Harbor, and rush a school 

 of sardines out upon the sands. In their excitement, 

 the large fishes, ranging from ten to thirty pounds, 

 dashed completely out of the water, paying no atten- 

 tion to the men who were wading among them, killing 

 them with oars and tossing them out upon the beach. 

 The same thing is occasionally seen at Avalon, when 

 the bag is filled with the big game which bites at 

 everything and anything, and is hauled upon the 

 sands by scores. At such a time the fishes are crazed ; 

 they lose their habitual caution, and do not heed 

 their enemy, man. 



Such exhibitions are more often seen at the tropics, 

 where every day in the long summer, from June to 

 November, such spectacles as the following may be 

 witnessed, and in which as a soectator or angler I 

 have often participated. 



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