A New Game Fish 



denly ceases biting and the season, so far as the sport 

 is concerned, is at an end; yet the tunas are still on 

 the ground. Up to this time they have been feeding 

 on flying fishes, running them into the bays and out 

 on the beaches, but now it will be found that they are 

 feeding on squid and in deeper water. 



These fishes evidently range from seventy-five to 

 two hundred and fifty pounds, doubtless larger ones 

 being in the schools. For two years past only small 

 ones have been seen, and it is supposed that a large 

 school of orcas drove them away, and tunas have been 

 reported from Australia and other parts of the world 

 where they have never been seen before. But sud- 

 denly, in the fall of 1904, a new fish arrived, a beauti- 

 ful creature, an almost typical tuna, but not over sixty 

 or seventy pounds in weight ; a fish as trim and attract- 

 ive as can be imagined. 



It had the general shape of a tuna. The head was 

 large, the back light olive green, in contradistinction 

 to the blue-backed big tunas. The finlets, instead of 

 pale yellow, as in the tuna, were a vivid lemon yellow ; 

 the side fins were a third longer than those of the 

 typical tunas. The oldest inhabitant of the island, 

 " Mexican Joe," who had been fishing its waters for 

 twenty years, had never seen the fish, although the 

 typical tuna has been known from the earliest times; 

 indeed, I have found its bones in the mounds, showing 

 that it was favorite game with the early inhabitants 

 of the island. 



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