144 Big Game Fishes 
rush, its heart still strong, the cruel gaff slips 
beneath it, is jerked into the silver throat, and 
the struggling fish lifted in. Such a moment is 
an epoch in some men’s lives. Thirty-five pounds 
is the gaffer’s report, and the fish he holds up to 
the admiring angler for inspection is a magnifi- 
cent specimen, the type of a game fish, nearly 
four feet in length, well proportioned, with lines 
like those of a privateer, a large head, yet not too 
large for the body, a radiant and large eye. 
Along its back is a long dorsal fin; the tail is 
forked, powerful, and a vivid yellow which is 
carried out in a stripe along the median line. 
The upper body color is an olive-brown in the 
water, changing in the sunlight to the most 
brilliant blue iridescence, the belly silver. Such 
is the general appearance of this prince of game 
fishes that dominates the quiet seas along the 
isles of summer. 
Like other popular fishes the yellowtail re- 
joices in a number of names, among which is the 
white salmon, a sad misnomer, the amber-fish, 
which has some significance, and cavasina, while 
its generic name, Sevzola, is euphonious. Its 
nearest relative is the little pilot-fish, Vaucrates, 
which bears a strong resemblance to the young 
