Aug. 4. 1906 -1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
179 
YELLOWTAILS CAUtIHT AT MAGDALENA BAY BY OFFICERS OF THE U. S. S. CHICAGO. 
tention given to the fishing license feature of 
the statute. This the officers propose to cor¬ 
rect without delay, and it is their purpose to 
prosecute without fear or favor any one violat¬ 
ing the game laws. 
“The sale of fishing licenses this season has 
outstripped last year’s record by several hun¬ 
dred, and the season has hardly begun as yet. 
“It is a novel sight to witness the Sunday 
morning fish train of the Oregon Short Line. 
Six or eight coaches are loaded to the guards 
with fishermen in all varieties of garbs and 
tackle. The atmosphere of the cars reeks with 
smoke through which float hundreds of stories 
of previous catches, and ‘the fly with which 
I had the best luck Sunday.’ It’s a study for 
the student of human nature, without a doubt. 
There are ladies, too, but you have to get close 
to them to know it, as a rule. They are gen¬ 
erally smothered under a straw canopy of 
fantastic shape of enough area to exclude a 
dozen suns. Many of the fair ones wear hunt¬ 
ing jackets of the hue and design of their 
brothers or husbands, together with hip boots 
and trousers, sometimes. 
“To add to the general comedy of the situa¬ 
tion there is a horde of enterprising young 
Americans who almost jaw you to death, hawk¬ 
ing the sale of ‘fat maggots’ for bait, together 
with chewing gum. A squirming, highly odor¬ 
iferous, excited and plump maggot is considered 
candy for Mr. Fish, and the little creature of the 
dumping grounds of the slaughter houses on 
the flats below town is eagerly sought until their 
sale by boys has become an unique industry of 
the fishing season in this city. 
“Its extent can better be appreciated when it 
is stated that the maggot vendors have organ¬ 
ized themselves into a union known as the Mag¬ 
got Sellers and Fish Bait Furnishers’ Union No. 
1, of Butte. Each can of maggots sells for 
twenty-five cents, and you would waste your 
breath trying to induce a member of the union 
to cut the price. He will not do it even for 
your catch for the day.” 
Sport at Magdalena Bay, Mexico. 
If you run your finger down the map of 
Lower California to a point about 200 miles 
from the tip end, you will come to this bay 
which is on the Pacific side. It is not much of 
a place, viewed from a residential or com¬ 
mercial standpoint. As a matter of fact, there 
are but twenty houses that constitute the settle¬ 
ment. Mexico seems not to take much interest 
in its welfare, for there is no semblance of 
authority about the spot, and the Mexican flag 
is not flown from any building or pole. 
The neighboring hills are as dry and treeless 
as they well can be. The popular yarn is that 
no rain has fallen, insignificant showers ex¬ 
cepted, in a dozen years, and certainly the aspect 
of nature substantiates the story of the natives. 
The climate is magnificent in the month of 
March, so far as one can see, after a stay of 
three weeks. Every day the sun shines from 
morning to sunset, with scarcely a cloud to ob¬ 
scure its rays. Nor is it by any means too 
warm. Magdalena is just north of the tropical 
latitude, on almost the same isotherm as 
Havana and Hongkong, yet its climate is far 
superior to these sports. One might style it 
semi-tropical during the day, blankets being 
needed at night. 
The bay forms a beautiful sheet of water, well 
protected, deep, and teeming with fish and 
marine life. Mullet, or a kind of mullet, are 
plentiful in a neighboring brackish lagoon, and 
a number have been taken with live bait. Span¬ 
ish mackerel are abundant, averaging in weight 
3 to 8 pounds; they have been captured on a 
bright spoon trolling from a sail boat. The ac¬ 
companying photo, which exhibits a catch 
suspended from a line, are nearly all what are 
called “yellow tails” and averaging about 10 
pounds each. They were taken on a jig hook, 
also by trolling. Their flesh is coarse and not 
particularly palatable. Much to my surprise, 
no tarpon have been caught either by hook and 
line or in our seines. 
In the way of feathered game there are doves, 
godwits and a few ducks, and shore birds. The 
flesh of the godwit is dark, the taste fishy and 
by no means good eating. Of non-game birds, 
various species of the natatores, as tern, cor¬ 
morant or grebe, and an enormous pelican are 
found. The spread of wings of this pelagic 
fisherman is 6 feet, the measurement being taken 
from a bird recently killed. The elastic pouch 
under the lower mandible would apparently hold 
a 3-pound trout, so capacious is it. I have come 
across almost none of the perching tribe, proba¬ 
bly because the country is treeless. Of insects 
there are but few, and save butterflies, prac¬ 
tically none have been met with. It is worthy 
of note that mosquitoes are entirely absent, 
though there are abundant paludal spots where 
they might breed, and where one would expect 
to find them. 
Animal life is very sparsely represented, noth¬ 
ing in the way of fauna having been come 
across, except the coyote and a small lizard; 
the latter is quite abundant and lives in holes 
burrowed in the hillsides. The reptiles are fur¬ 
ther represented by the sea turtle. The ac¬ 
companying photograph depicts a number just 
brought in. They are taken alive with a small 
sharp harpoon that wounds, but the stab is not 
severe enough to kill. I could not determine 
whether they are of the hawk’s bill species or 
not. The largest weighed about 80 pounds. 
It is worthy of note that no snakes at all have 
been seen either in the canons, arroyos secos, or. 
hillsides. One would expect to meet with them 
here. 
From this cursory account it will be seen that 
the piscatorial opportunities at Magdalena Bay 
are much better than those with the feathered 
game. The latter are by no means sn good as 
I had anticipated. 
The accompanying photographs were taken by 
IT C. Kellers, M.D., U. S. N. 
Clement Biddle, U. S. Navy. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
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supply you regularly. 
IN THE WOODS 
or in the mountains, no matter how far from civilization, 
fresh milk can always be had if foresight is used in 
packing the outfit. Borden’s Peerless Evaporated Cream 
in cans keeps indefinitely until opened, and answers every 
purpose. It is pure, rich milk, condensed to the con¬ 
sistency of cream, put up without sugar and preserved 
by sterilization only.— Adv. 
TURTLES TAKEN BY HARPOONING. 
