42 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
15. FISHERIES OF VENTURA COUNTY. 
Geographical characteristics , etc . — Ventura County lies between Los 
Angeles and Santa Barbara Counties, and has a coast line of about 30 
miles, with a northwesterly trend. It has no harbors nor any large 
bays or important indentations. Along the coast is a narrow and more 
or less sandy plain, which is bordered in the rear by high mountains. 
The lofty Santa Monica Mountains form the border line between this and 
Los Angeles Couuty, the ridge running down to the shore and termi- 
nating in two rough rocky headlands called Point Duma and Point Con- 
version. In a similar manner the couuty is separated on the north 
from Santa Barbara County by a spur of the Santa Inez Bange, which 
ends at the sea in the bold headland of El Eicon. 
According to Jordan, the Ventura Biver (Santa Clara Biver on some 
of the maps), which flows through the county, is the southernmost river 
in California that is not alkaline at its mouth. Therefore, although 
brook trout occur u in the headwaters of the Los Angeles and San Luis 
Bey Bivers, and even in some streams in the San Jacinto Mountains, in 
San Diego County,” the salmon does not enter any river south of this. 
Coast towns and fisheries . — Huenema and San Buenaventura are the 
only coast towns. The fisheries in this county have never been impor- 
tant. In 1880 Jordan records that there was at San Buenaventura 
u but one professional fisherman, who has in his possession two gill nets 
and one seine.” He learned that there was a small party of Chinamen 
at Point Magu, 9 miles south of Huenema, who combined the labors of 
fishing and gardening, while a few Californians and Chinese fished from 
the wharves at San Buenaventura, and two or three farmers at Laguna 
Banch occasionally operated a seine. The county is now without a 
single professional fisherman, so far as could be learned. A few indi- 
viduals may occasionally catch a small number of fish for their own 
use — possibly any surplus may be peddled in the towns or surround- 
ing country ; but such operations are carried on in such a desultory and 
unsystematic way that they do not assume the importance of commer- 
cial fishing. Ventura County has in reality no fishery interests; and 
its short coast line, lack of shelter for boats, and the general character 
of its shores hold forth little promise for the future. 
16. FISHERIES OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY. 
Geographical characteristics . — The coast line of this county, exclusive 
of the islands, is upwards of 100 miles in length. From Ventura County 
the coast extends almost due west to Point Conception, thence north- 
westerly to Point Arguello, where it turns sharply northward, the trend 
of the shore from this point to its junction with San Luis Obispo County 
being almost due north. Along the south coast, between the mountains 
and the sea, there is, over a long section, a belt of rather fertile land, 
with stretches of smooth, sandy beaches, occasional rocky shores, with 
