FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
49 
Monthly shipments from Santa Barbara County to San Francisco by the Pacific 
Coast Steamship Company, in 1688. 
Month. 
Dry fish. 
Fresh 
fish. 
A balone 
meat. 
Abalone 
shells. 
Live 
seals. 
Seal 
skins. 
Seal 
oil. 
Cray- 
fish.* 
February 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
220 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
1,010 
3, 180 
No. 
8 
No. 
Bbls. 
Lbs. 
March 
April 
4 
J UQ6 
1, 600 
4 
246 
.Tn 1 v 
260 
354 
9 
u “ A .y 
August 
M i 
; ; 
►£> ^1 ' 
tf*. CO - 
' o o < 
her 
13, 525 
October 
2, 625 
3, 700 
December 
2, 880 
2, 060 
50 
2 
Total 
6, 325 
2, 080 
34, 050 
19, 775 
16 
650 
11 
12, 000 
* Dates. of shipments of crayfish not given. 
17. FISHERIES OF SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY. 
Geographical features . — The coast line of San Luis Obispo County has 
a general direction about OW. and SSE. and is 80 miles long in a 
straight line. It is, however, irregular in contour and would measure 
considerably more by following the curve of the bays of San Luis 
Obispo, Esteros, and San Simeon, which indent the shore. There is no 
harbor, and the nearest approach to one is the “ one-sided” shelter at 
Port Harford, on the north side of San Luis Obispo Bay, where there is a 
long pier at which the coast steamers touch to connect with the railroad. 
A breakwater is being built at Point San Luis, as a protection to Port 
Harford, and it is expected this will extend seaward a mile or more in 
a southeasterly direction. Port Harford is the only railroad terminus 
on the coast of this county; it is about 198 miles (by sea) from San 
Francisco, and is the port of San Luis Obispo, a thriving town of about 
4,500 inhabitants, 10 miles inland. Being the principal point from 
which fish can be conveniently shipped to the interior, or to San Fran- 
cisco, it is the center of the limited food-fish fishery, and there is no 
other fishing station in the county except at San Simeon Bay, 38 miles 
northwest of Port Harford, where whaling is prosecuted and where 
one man catches a few smelts and rockfish that are sent to San Fran- 
cisco by steamer.* The coast is high and broken in sections, but there 
are long stretches of sandy beaches, with shallow spits or reefs extending 
into the sea, which uncover at low tide and upon which native clams 
occur in abundance. 
Importance of the fisheries . — The fisheries of this county are not im- 
portant at the present time. It is reported, however, that fish occur in 
great variety, and even more abundantly than farther south. There is 
apparently no lack of supply, and for this reason the fishing interest is 
capable of material advancement and may reasonably be expected to 
keep pace with the increase of population ; while still greater improve- 
ment may be anticipated if desirable changes in methods are adopted, 
which will tend to a wider distribution of products. 
* The fisherman at San Simeon Bay is one of the whaling crew at that station, aud 
fishes for food species when not engaged in whaling. 
H. Mis. 274 4 
