Some Ocean Giants 201 



one, of which I have the record, taken at Avalon, weighed 

 four hundred or more pounds. It does not matter who took 

 it. Those who would boast of the big fish they catch must 

 do so outside of these veracious pages. 



The jewfish of California, called by anglers black sea- 

 bass, is olive-green in color, dark above but nearly plain. 

 Its flesh is white, firm and well flavored, and it has a good 

 repute as a market fish. 



In Japan there are two huge jewfishes. The one known 

 as the Ishinagi, or stone-bass, is very much like the Cali- 

 fornia fish in appearance and habits. 



The other, called the Abura bodzu, or " fat priest," is a big, 

 sleek giant, said to grow very fat. It is, however, seldom 

 taken, only three or four specimens being known to me. It 

 is really not a bass, but an ally of the rock cod. In For- 

 mosa and southward is a jewfish still more huge, with a 

 very broad head. This one is said to reach a length some- 

 times of twelve feet, but the largest I have seen is not over 

 a foot long. In Australia are other jewfishes, mighty masses 

 of fish flesh, one of them being called Glaucosoma hebra- 

 icum, a Hebrew as well as a Jew. 



In the West Indies, the great spotted guasa, or itaiara, 

 is called jewfish by the English fishermen, as is also the great 

 black grouper. Grouper is a corruption of the Portuguese 

 name, garrupa, applied to all large sea-bass, and the biggest 

 of the garrupas are the jewfish. The guasa is found on the 

 Pacific coast of Mexico, as well as in the West Indies. From 

 other monsters of its kind, it may be known by the round 

 black spots as large as peas which cover its body. Another 

 jewfish is known in England as wreckfish, or stone-bass. 

 This is much like the California jewfish. It is called in 

 Spanish cherna, or in Italian cerna. The great grouper 

 of the Mediterranean is sometimes counted with the jew- 

 fishes. It is the merou of the French fishermen, the mero 

 or cherna of the Spanish. All these names are much mixed 

 up in the West Indies as bass or perch are with us, but if 



