SMALL PAOIPIC COAST SEA FISHES 



of bait. Often great quantities of fish are taken, and the patience 

 of Ovid and Oppian is exemplified as a virtue of the ages. 



There is a fine halibut taken on sandy bottom in Southern 

 California, the Tuna Club having a record sixty pounder ; but 

 smaller specimens are the rule, taken in lagoons and at the 

 mouth of the island canons. In deep water, but found at the 

 surface, in shoals or schools, is a beautiful little fish, the bonito. 

 I should call it the humming-bird of the sea, so radiant is it, so 

 bathed in myriads of colours and tints. It is a mackerel-like 

 fish, a cousin of the tunas ; very thick-set, but a type of activity, 

 its tail moving so rapidly that it can scarcely be seen. I have 

 taken this little fish within a few feet of the shore at Santa CataUna, 

 where it abounds in countless numbers. The most interesting 

 place to observe it is a mile off Avalon in the sapphire-blue of the 

 Kuro-shiwo. Here great bands of bordtos roam with the 

 albacore, and when the launch is stopped and the boatman tosses 

 over a handful of bait to attract the fish the sight is an extraor- 

 dinary one. The ocean is a vivid blue ; dark when cloudy, a 

 light turquoise when the sun shines. Great beams of light can 

 be seen penetrating the deeps, illuming the myriads of iridescent 

 and translucent animals which flU every drop of this semi-tropic 

 sea. The result is that a wealth of weird and fascinating animals 

 are exhibited and seemingly magnified, their colours being 

 brilliant and beautiful beyond expression. Here are bands of 

 minute crustaceans of every hue of the rainbow, gems of the 

 ' dark unfathomed caves,' so like the real gems that the name 

 SappMrinae has been given them. Some are sapphires, others 

 pink diamonds ; here a group of rubies or emeralds ; others again 

 range from Kunzite to tourmaline, all so minute that when placed 

 imder the naked eye they can scarcely be seen. Yet when 

 drifting in this cerulean sea it has the appearance at times of 

 having been dusted with gems. 



Pulsating, into these living gems comes a Uving comet Avith a 

 head a foot or two feet across. Its colour is that of ice, variegated 

 with bands of dark lavender. Away from it extends a sweeping 



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