Aug. 18, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
25* 
A California Basking Shark. 
Los Angeles, Cal., July 30.—A basking shark 
of the enormous weight of 3,600 pounds, the 
largest ever taken off the Southwest coast, was 
captured by fishermen from the little resort of 
Venice. 
It is these fishermen’s custom to use seines 
in the inshore waters where they take many surf 
fish, yellowfin, halibut, and other shallow water 
fish. Sharks have been unusually numerous this 
year, but none have been observed so close in 
shore as the place where the seines were drawn, 
not over three hundred feet from the beach. On 
this occasion, two of the fishermen had a small 
set seine, which they had left out all night. 
Such seines are supported by many cork floats, 
strung on the upper cord of the net. Great was 
the fishermen’s surprise, therefore, when, on 
going out to their trap in the morning, they 
could find no trace even of the seine itself, let 
alone the boat load of fish they had expected. 
A terrific thrashing about, however, was plainly 
in evidence a few hundred yards out, and there, 
as they discovered on rowing out, was the cause 
of all their trouble. A huge basker had become 
entangled in the net, and while the strong cord 
had held hard and fast, he had pulled up the 
entire seine, containing many pounds of fish and 
moved out to sea with it. 
The shark could not dive, nor could he swim 
away. Repeated blows with an oar failed to kill 
him, and the fishermen were compelled to return 
to shore to get a spear with which to dispatch 
the monster. On their return, the shark was 
nowhere to be seen, and a search over many 
miles of sea resulted before the great fish was 
finally located. 
By this time he had almost escaped from the 
seine and was feebly struggling about in the 
trough of the sea, apparently having been en¬ 
gaged in a fierce battle with the tangled cordage 
all night. Here he was easily harpooned and 
then was towed into the little port, where he was 
an object of curiosity to visitors for miles 
around. Eventually the dead fish was taken in 
charge by the railroad company, and removed to 
another resort, where it was a feature until the 
odor from the carcass became so terrific that it 
was removed. 
Sharks frequently appear in the channel. Two 
hammerheads, seen between San Pedro and Cata¬ 
lina last summer, were estimated by old fisher¬ 
men to weigh not less than a ton apiece, while 
the world’s record shark, taken on rod and line, 
is held by a one-time angler of Avalon, whose 
famous catch weighed, I believe, 534 pounds. 
But fish of this kind seldom come so close in¬ 
shore as did this one, and the only excuse so far 
given for the creature’s strange action is that 
it was attracted from outside by some unusually 
large catch of edible fish in the seine. 
Besides the hammerheads and the baskers, 
there are also immense numbers of little leopard 
sharks and the common dog sharks all along 
the coast. Out in the channel there are huge, 
uncouth “belaying-pin” fish, which are the finest 
fighters in the world if hooked with such tackle 
that he cannot bite the leaders in twain. Avalon 
also holds the world’s records on these fish. 
Yet, in spite of all these, there has never be¬ 
fore, since California was known and Avalon 
became the paradise of anglers, been taken such 
a huge tiger of the sea as this off the Southwest 
coast. Since then, there have been seen many 
huge sharks in the channel and there are now 
several fishermen on Catalina' waiting for a 
chance to go after these fellows with the light 
tackle which they have used successfully against 
the yellowtail and the black sea bass. But the bass, 
which is the heaviest of coast game fishes, weighs 
but a trifle over 400 pounds at his best; these 
giants of deeper waters almost all will tip the 
scales at more than a ton. How the adventur¬ 
ous anglers will come out is a matter for much 
speculation and of not a little interest to all the 
fishermen of this region. Harry H. Dunn. 
Coronado and the Pronghorn. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton in his article on 
the pronghorn, in Scribner’s Magazine for 
July, quotes from Mr. Lummis that there is no 
name and no definite description of the antelope 
in Coronado’s record. “The nearest he comes 
to it is on the buffalo plains, where Castaneda 
speaks of stags patched with white.” 
It is true that there is no distinctive name for 
the pronghorn in the history of that expedition, 
but there are two descriptive allusions, besides 
the mention of stags patched with white, that 
seem to refer to the antelope with some cer¬ 
tainty. A great part of the Coronado literature 
can be found in the 14th report of our Bureau 
of Ethnology. 
Coronado’s letter to Mendoza, written on his 
arrival in the neighborhood of Zuni, says that 
in that country “they have bears, tigers, lions, 
porcupines and some sheep as big as a horse 
with very large horns and little tails. * * * 
There are also wild goats whose heads I have 
seen.” 
Coronado’s description of the fauna is not 
closely accurate, but the strong probability is 
that the goats he mentions are antelope, as the 
animal called the Rocky Mountain goat is not 
known to have ranged so far south. 
Castaneda in the second chapter of the sec¬ 
ond part of his “Relation” says that between 
Suya and Chilchilticale (that is, extending south¬ 
ward from Casa Grande into Sonora) there are 
many sheep and wild goats with large horns 
and bodies. There are Spaniards, he continues, 
who say that they saw a band of more than a 
hundred together run so fast that they shortly 
went out of sight. 
Now the region named is an antelope country, 
and while there may have been sheep in the out¬ 
lying buttes and ranges, the goats here men¬ 
tioned, judging from the size of the band and 
the swiftness of the animals, were probably 
antelope. There are in the Coronado papers in¬ 
teresting descriptions of the dog-trains of the 
southern nomads. 
Castaneda says, in the seventh chapter of his 
second part, speaking of the Indians of the 
plains, “They go with their lodges and droves 
of dogs, rigged with packsaddles and cinches. 
When the load turns, the dog howls for some 
one to come and set it straight.” 
In the “Pelacion Postrera” the author of that 
paper again, speaking of the southern plains, 
says, “The people there have dogs like those of 
this country, except that they are somewhat 
bigger. These dogs they load like pack animals 
and they make packsaddles for them and cinch 
them with straps. And the dogs get galled on 
the withers like other beasts of burden. When 
they go hunting they load their baggage on 
them, and when these Indians move camp (for 
they are not settled in one place, but follow 
the buffalo for a living) these dogs carry the 
lodges and drag the lodge poles tied on to the 
saddles, besides the load on top. They can 
carry a load of from thirty-five to fifty pounds.” 
This intimate picture of a dog train would an¬ 
swer well for the loaded ponies and travois of 
three hundred years later, except for the size of 
the animals and the cunning trait of the dog’s 
knowledge to get his load fixed. 
It shows not only the ancient derivation and 
long continuance of the Indian methods of pack¬ 
ing, but proves also the general use of dogs as 
carriers among the southern as well as the 
northern wanderers. G. H. Gould. 
To Weekly Purchasers. 
Owing to a change in the method of distribut¬ 
ing the Forest and Stream, readers who are ac¬ 
customed to purchase the paper of newsdealers, 
at news stands, in book shops, and elsewhere, 
are advised to leave with the dealer from whom 
they buy an order to supply them regularly. 
BASILING SHARK CAUGHT AT VENICE, CAL. WEIGHT 3,6oO POUNDS. 
