THE LITTLE TUNAS 



ij. W. Mclntyre, Catlin, 111., year 1908 . . . 65^ pounds. 



S. A. Guy, Shreveport, La., season 1909 . . . 43| „ 



1 W. N. McMillan, Nairobi, E. Africa, winter season 1909-10 50 „ 



^H. A. Omson, Los Angeles, Cal., season 1910 . . 37| ,, 



^C. R. Guertler, New York, winter season 1910-11 . 51 J „ 



iR. H. Hempthrump, Bloomington, 111., season 1911 . 40 „ 



IVank KeUey, Goshen, Ind., winter season 1911-12 . 66 lb. 5 oz. 



Closely related to the albacore are the bonitoes, two of which 

 are found in American waters : one, Sarda cMlensis, an important 

 game fish of the Pacific coast. The bonito, Sarda sarda, is a 

 most attractive fish, well known in the Atlantic, offshore, and 

 in the Mediterranean Sea. Professor G. Brown Goode says of it : 



' One of these fishes is a marvel of beauty and strength. Every line 

 iu its contour is suggestive of swift motion. The head is shaped like 

 a minie bullet, the jaws fit together so tightly that a knife-edge could 

 scarcely pass between, the eyes are hard, smooth, their surfaces on a 

 perfect level with the adjoining siuiaces. The shoulders are heavy 

 and strong, the contours of the powerful masses of muscle gently and 

 evenly merging into the straighter lines in which the contour of the body 

 slopes back to the tail. The dorsal fin is placed in a groove into which 

 it is received, like the blade of a clasp-knife in its handle. The pectoral 

 and ventral fins also fit into depressions in the sides of the fish. Above and 

 below, on the posterior third of the body, are placed the httle finlets, each 

 a little rudder with independent motions of its own, by which the course 

 of the fish may be readily steered. The tail itself is a crescent-shaped oar, 

 without flesh, almost without scales, composed of bundles of rays, flexible 

 yet almost as hard as ivory. A single sweep of this powerful oar doubtless 

 suffices to propel the bonito a hundred yards, for the polished surfaces of 

 its body can ofier little resistance in the water. I have seen a common 

 dolphin swimming round and round a steamship advancing at the rate 

 of twelve knots an hour, the efiort being hardly perceptible. The wild 

 duck is said to fly seventy miles in an hour. Who can calculate the speed 

 of the bonito ? It might be done by the aid of the electrical contrivances 

 by which is calculated the initial velocity of a projectile. The bonitoes 

 in our sounds to-day may have been passing Cape Colony or the Land 

 of Eire day before yesterday.' 



This fish is represented at Santa Catalina by Sarda cMlensis, 

 the skipjack. UnHke the Atlantic species, it comes inshore at 



^ Taken under tackle specifications of Light Tackle Class. 



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