208 Big Game Fishes 
July and August; at least at this time fishes with 
ripe spawn are observed. The eggs are depos- 
ited presumably in the open channel; the very 
young fish I have never seen. The smallest 
observed weighed about five pounds. The 
young resemble the adult, except that the pecto-_ 
ral fins are shorter. The adult fish, while it is 
caught near the island shores, never approaches 
the mainland, being found from two to five miles 
out. Always present in vast numbers, feeding or 
playing, the albacore is a feature of the angling 
life of the islands and affords no little amusement 
to visitors who watch its leaps, and the turmoil it 
creates; now here, now there, ever wandering, it 
is a constant menace to the small fishes. The 
average catch weighs from fifteen to twenty 
pounds, yet fishes of this size drive the large fly- 
ing-fishes inshore and often afford remarkable 
exhibitions of ground and lofty tumbling, almost 
invariably coming down like arrows. The rush 
of a school of albacores, as they charge the flying- 
fishes, invariably arouses the angling community, 
as every one knows that here are bonitos, and 
possibly tunas, all forming a pack of sea-hounds 
crazed with the lust for slaughter. 
“ Ahoy!” comes from a launch over the water, 
