SANTA CATALINA ISLAND SWOEDFISHT 



it ; this is why so many men have expended weeks and thou- 

 sands of dollars in the effort to take one. Mr. Eoss of Montreal, 

 accomplished a feat in taking his seven hundred pound tuna with 

 rod and reel that has no parallel in the annals of big game on 

 land or sea. 



This swordflsh is not by any means so strong, pound for pound, 

 but it is strong enough to satisfy the physical longings of the 

 average man, and the big fish at their best are almost invincible to 

 any but an angler in good condition. To this I would add the 

 spectacular feature of leaping in which they outdo the famous 

 tarpon, ten to one. Again, and not to be forgotten, is the ele- 

 ment of danger. This fish is liable to ram the boat. 



In the Atlantic a sitmlar species has been known to injure^ 

 a vessel so seriously that she put into port leaking badly. There 

 is a great difference in individuals, and this is true of aU fishes. 

 Many are not in condition, but I believe I saw the killing of ai 

 typical fish when I stood by Dr. Gifford Pinchot, Ex-U.S. Forester,. 

 one night between Santa Catalina and San Clemente islands. 

 He had taken one fish in the morning, and about five o'clock, 

 his twenty-foot launch came into port with a request that I 

 go out to see a swordfish jump that he had hooked some time 

 before. I later learned that Mexican Joe, his boatman, wished 

 me to stand by them as the fish was forcing them out to sea, and 

 night was coming on. I took the hehn from the boy who brought, 

 in the launch, but presently learned that he did not know where 

 they were except in a general way. I knew the fish was towing 

 them out, so took a course to the east and kept on for several 

 miles but without finding them ; then I gradually altered my 

 course to the north and at last, when I estimated that I was- 

 three or four miles off San Clemente I saw a faint gleam on my 

 port bow and lq a short time reached them. Mexican Joe had. 

 lighted his last match hoping that I would see it, and it was the 

 glare of this impossible signal and forlorn hope that caught my 

 eye. I had a lantern out and they had seen me. Bounding up 

 behind their boat I gave it to them. Pinchot was sitting facing: 



87 



