366 Big Game Fishes 
hook being in the most impossible and out-of-the- 
way position. 
If the capture of the great halibut is strenuous, 
there is one of the group which has afforded me 
all the gratification of a thoroughly game fish, 
for which reason is the flatfish, with “eyes dis- 
torted,” admitted to this honorable company of 
game fishes. The islands of Southern California 
lie, as a rule, parallel to the mainland coast, long 
mountain ranges, — recumbent sea-monsters from 
seven to twenty-five miles in length, — lying at the 
surface twenty miles offshore; and as the prevail- 
ing wind is from the west, they have a perfect lee 
on the eastern shore, a region of calms, while on 
the west other conditions hold. At Santa Cata- 
lina, on the south and west coast, the sea often 
beats wildly against abrupt cliffs, which in 
storms hurl it back with loud discordant sounds. 
Coming down this coast one day from the 
black sea-bass fishing-grounds, we sighted, well 
in the surf, a school of fishes of large size, toss- 
ing the water in air, striking heavy blows, and 
evidently playing havoc with the small fry which, 
in rows of gleaming silver, shot from the water. 
I was trolling with a fifteen-ounce greenheart 
rod seven and a half feet long, hoping to pick 
