THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



offerings of various objects by resident fishermen and seamen in 

 Europe — compensations to the angler. 



The most remarkable fishery in the world, however, is found 

 in the Mediterranean. I refer to the tunny fisheries at Sicily, 

 where vast nets are used to entrap the great fishes, the catch 

 being an event well worth witnessing. It has its headquarters 

 at Sicily where the tunny attains a weight of one thousand 

 pounds. Every year the largest fish is presented at the shrine 

 of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of Siefiian fishermen ; and 

 generaUy'lsrings them good luck. The first tunas of the season enter 

 the Straits of Gibraltar in April. They are known as the ' Tunny 

 of Arrival,' and are very soon sighted by the fishermen of the 

 Balearic Islands and in a month reach Sicily. The big school 

 which comes up from the South African coast divides into three 

 general parts ; one goes south by Tunis and Algiers, reaching 

 the Adriatic and even the Bosphorus ; the second and largest 

 foUows along the north coast of Sicily, passing through the 

 Straits of Messina, and is taken as far east as Syracuse ; while 

 the third school reaches Corsica and Sardinia. It is from this 

 school that the supply of tuna for Genoa and IS'aples comes. 



The coming and going of the tunny is as uncertain as at 

 Santa CataUna ; hence the saints are invoked, and their statues 

 carried through the streets, the men appealing to them in song 

 as they follow. Sometimes the big schools are preceded by 

 young fish weighing from twenty to fifty pounds. The tunny 

 comes to the quiet waters of this sea to spawn, as it does to the 

 lee of Santa Catahna. By July they disappear. They some- 

 times remain in these waters, as at Santa CataUna, California, 

 all the year round, and from now are taken xmtil October off the 

 coast of Spain and Portugal, where they are called the ' Tunny of 

 Eeturn.' ISo one knows where they winter. 



The tunny in an economic sense is the salmon of the sea. 



When they are reported from the Balearic Isles, which I recall 



with deep pleasure, the invocation to the saints begins, and the 



nets, moles in length and valued at ten thousand or more dollars, 



i86 



