CHAPTER XVII 



THE SMALL PACIFIC COAST SEA FISHES 



' A shoal of dolphins tumbling in wild glee. 

 Glowed with such orient tints, they might have been 

 The rainbow's offspring, where it met the ocean.' 



Montgomery. 



THE game fishes of the Pacific coast of North America are 

 so large, and their captm'e on light tackle has attracted 

 so much attention, that the small fry are completely lost sight 

 of except by local anglers. 



The long mainland beaches of California, in the majority of 

 instances without rocks or anything to relieve them, receive the 

 heavy swell of the Pacific, raised by a local wind incorrectly 

 called ' trade,' which comes up about noon daily and by two 

 or three o'clock is a fresh, stirring breeze. Early in the morning 

 it may be dead calm, but by eleven or twelve o'clock this mysteri- 

 ous breeze begins. It is moderate in Southern California, but 

 after Point Concepcion is passed, in about latitude thirty-two 

 degrees, it is felt more severely. 



This surf keeps off most of the fishes except at such localities 

 as San Luis Obispo, Monterey and Eedondo, where fairly deep 

 water comes in near shore. But in the surf are found certain 

 fishes which afford no little sport, and from the lines of the rail- 

 way south of Los Angeles, and between it and San Diego, many 

 anglers will be seen either standing on the sands, like the New 

 Jersey anglers, or wading in and casting. The fish so caught is 

 very attractive, known as the kingfish or CalLEornia whiting 

 (Menticirrus undulatus). Others, caught off sandy beaches 

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