34 FISHERMEl^ OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ruling price is 6 cents per pound. When the whaling season is over, the whalemen join in the 

 work of supplying the local markets. 



There is one Portuguese at Moss Landing, Castroville. In this county are two whaling com- 

 panies — one at Carmelo, consisting of seventeen men, all Portuguese, commanded by Captain 

 Mariano. They have two boats, and during the past year took one finback, three humpback, and 

 three gray whales. Last year this company was at Point Sur, farther south in Monterey County. 

 During a great portion of the winter the sea runs so high that the men dare not go out. 



The Monterey whaling company consists of twenty-three men, all Portuguese, and all but one 

 from the Azores. Their commander is Captain Verissimo. This company has been in Monterey 

 since 1855. They own three boats of New Bedford make, and during the past year they have taken 

 fourteen whales and two basking sharks. 



In San Mateo County there is one Portuguese, residing at Pescadero. He owns a gill-net which 

 he sets at the mouth of Pescadero Creek, catching the salmon as they run up to spawn. He sells his 

 fish in Pescadero, and finds the market .so small that, although without family, he makes but a 

 poor living. 



In San Francisco there are twenty Portuguese engaged in the shore fisheries. Details of their 

 habits and mode of living will be found in another paragraph below. 



There are also thirteen Portuguese engaged in the San Francisco cod fleet, and forty more in 

 the San Francisco off-shore whale fleet. 



Portuguese in Washington Territory and Oregon. — In Washington Territory there 

 are probably not more than three Portuguese, who, at Gig Harbor, are occupied in catching 

 dogfish. 



On the Columbia Eiver, engaged in the salmon fishery, there are about one hundred Portuguese. 



21. THE SPANISH FISHERMEN ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 



Spanish fishermen in California. — There are now but few fishermen of Spanish descent 

 in California, though occasionally they may be found among the mixed fishing population of the 

 larger places. 



"About one hundred years ago," writes Jordan, "the various missions of California were 

 founded. Later the country became the abode of Spanish grandees, who became the owners of 

 large tracts of land, depending chiefly for subsistence on their herds of cattle, and paying but 

 little attention to fishing. Their descendants and successors, the ' Californians,' men, for the 

 most part, of mixed Spanish and Indian blood, fished and still fish only with hook and line. To 

 the present day they compose the larger portion of those who sit on the wharves in the sun catch- 

 ing sculpins, but they own no boats and are not truly fishermen." 



There are at present not more than twenty Spaniards on the Pacific coast who can properly 

 be termed fishermen. Pour of this number are in Santa Cruz County, fifteen in San Francisco 

 County, and one in Marin County. 



The Spaniards of Santa Cruz County have in use two boats. They live in the southern part 

 of Santa Cruz City, and fish for rockfish, sea bass, and barracuda. Little fishing is done by them 

 or the Italian fishermen, their neighbors, in the winter on account of the rough seas which at that 

 season must be encountered in the fisheries. 



Of the Spaniards living in San Francisco City nothing can be stated as to their peculiarities 

 of life. They live at the west end of Vallejo street, about the Vallejo street wharf, with fishermen 

 of several other nationalities. They are employed in fishing with the drag-net. 



