The Halibut 369 
resistant. The fish, which was the bastard hali- 
but, Paralichthys californicus, weighed between 
fifty and sixty pounds, was three and a half feet in 
length, a fine specimen of this genus common 
about the islands, though rarely caught of this 
size, possibly because bottom-fishing is seldom 
indulged in here except by professional fisher- 
men on the so-called grouper banks. At Cata- 
lina Harbor, a California fjord, Empire Landing, 
and a few localities on the west coast, it can 
always be found. At San Clemente, twenty 
miles to the southwest, it is also common, and it 
is also taken at Coronado, in the bay, at La 
Jolla, San Juan, Monterey, in fact anywhere 
alongshore where shallow and protected water is 
found. The young fishes, when lying on the 
sandy bottom, so simulate it that it is almost 
impossible to distinguish them. I have taken 
them from the beach with an eight-ounce split 
bamboo, and found the sport enjoyable. 
Of all fishes this group is perhaps the quaint- 
est. When young they swim upright, as do 
others, but as they grow they fall over and lie 
flat, the lower side turning white as the pigment 
is found unnecessary, and then comes a change 
which, in its seeming impossibility, equals the 
2B 
