The morning call., 1891-02-20
ALIVE WITH FISH.
SauSalitO Bay Teeming With
Shoals of Sardines.
Dead Fish Carried From the Beach to Be Used
as Fertilizer on the Farms-How They
Are Caught at the Lagoon.

IL IS mol OIten tnat the sleepy little town
OF SauSalito furnishes sensation, but it has
one at last, and that one of peculiar kind.
II is nothing more nor less than big nroad
of fish-fsh of all kinds and all siz4s-and
exactly to what species they belong it would
puzzle a member of the Academy of
Sciences, or an officer of the United States
Fish Commissioners steamer Albatross to
tell
All that is known is that the shores of
Sausalito Bay which are usually covered at
low water with miscellaneous collection
of old oyster and tomato cans, dead SOL
diers" in the shape of empty ale, porter and
champagne bottles, relics of high old times
on the yachts and at the club-houses. are
now strewn with the carcasses of dead fish,
whose smell arises to heaven.
The Inhabitants of Sausalito have fish
enough and to spare Every day lately from
800 to 1850 pounds of fish has been shipped
to this side from the little burg across the
bay, and still enough h IS been left there for
every man, woman and child in the town
and for miles around to have three square
meals of FISH day for months to come.
The children there are getting tired of
fish diet, and are looking forward to the
time when the run of the fnny tribe shall
cease, and their economical papas and
maLimas will again have beef mutton, pork
and other flesh meats on the daily bilI of
fare.
THEY SMELL TO HEAVEN.
a person going from the city to Sausaito
who has heard OF the big influx OF fish and
hoN their arcasSes are lying by millions on
The shore, viii see nothing to make him
think the story is true as he lands from the
boat or in the vicinity. On either side of
the boat-landing the beach is strewn with
the same old variety of cans, bottles, sail
ors beds, tin pans, demilohns and gum
boots. But take spin along the beach on
the line OF the San Francisco and North
Pacific Railway, and the fish, dead aud
alive, tell their own tale.
About quarter of a mile from the depot
is the Marine BOat-hOuse aud all around it
Cd tn beach are strewn thousands of fish in
all stages Of decomposition. Captain l..
Johnson, who has charge of the boat-hOuse,
says that they have had runs of fish there
for the past five seasons, but nothing to
equal IN quantity thepresent run.
he states that 1t is impossible TO sleep at
night for the noise made by the gullS and
other sea fowl that prey on the shoals of
nSh. The hSh, he says, are something be-
tween smelt and herring, and are full of
oil, and he thinks fortune could be made by
some one who had the requisite knOwl edge
to express the oil from the fish and utilize it.
as is done with the oil of the black fish, dog
fish, whale. sea lion and others.
On the sides OF the railway embankment,
and thousands of dead fish, and gasping fish
that had been left there by the retreating
tide. and at intervals dead gull that had
been killed by club on the head from a
small boy as II was gorging on the putrid
fish.
AT THE LAGOON.
But it is at the lagoon that the fish are seen
in the greatest abundance The lagoon is
situated about mile and quarter up the
track from the landing, AMI is separated
from the bay by the embankment of the
railroad The tide GIBBS and flows out and
into 1t through culYert under the track.
All around the shores of the lagoon dead
hsh are strewn By thousands. When a
CALL reporter visited the scene yesterday
the wind was from the north, and long be-
fore he got III sight of the lagoon the breeze
brought to his nostrilS the stencil of rancid
oil or decaying fish, something similar to
that OF trypOt Cd whaler when she is
frying out blubber at sea.
The culvert is at about the center of the la
COON, and the bottom is igher in the middle
tnan at the ends, so that wien the tide runs
out the fish cannot get over the high grounds
and are stranded. AT the south end of the
lagoon dead fish are lying in shoals, and Mr..
jackson and other farmers in the vicinity
have hauled away carloads of them to use
as fertilizer on their farms.
Every day when the tide runs in or out
OF the lagoon, men, women and children
gather at the culyert or near it and CAPTURE
alive all the fish they want. 1t is the
easiest thing in the world. Some boys stand
at the entrance to the culvert and Just SCOOP
the fish up with their hands as they pass
through and throw them up alive To their
comrades on the banks.
Others row around in punts and strike
the fish with piece of wood, stunning them
and then pick them up at their leisure. One
boy named Clarence Armbjornson got over
seventy pounds of fish in one hour this way
yesterday. The women stand on the beach
and throw stones into the water few feet
away. The fish get scared and run upon the
beach, where the women pick them up alive
and transfer them to their baskets
one woman yesterday afternoon got her
market btsket full of live squirming fish
while the reporter was watching her I've
never eat them the day we catch them" she
said; they are too fat, too full of oil. We
take them home, split and clean them and
then salt them. We next drain them two or
three times in fresh water anu then dry
them. and by that time they are splendid.
Ii you fry and eat them when fresh caught
they make you sick"
MILLIONS OF GULLs.
The boys there have high old time fish
ing alter school is over, and il they don't
want to fish they kill gulls for the fun of the
thing There are gulls by the millions
They fly around uttering an unearthly
screen once in while, pouncing down on
an unlucey fish aud bear it aloft in their
beaks, or solemnlv walk around with their
web-feet on the foul-scented mud, and DELHI
erately make a meal of the dead or dying
fish that the receding tide has left high and
dry.
When the boys get tired of killing gulls or
fishing in the ordinary manner they try
scheme which always causes lots of fun
and gives good returns. They get a number
OF gunny sacks and connecting them by
cords stretch them across the mouth of the
| culvert as the tide flows in and out.
| In less time than it takes to tell each sack
IS full, and the boys haul the improvised
seine ashore, pick cut the finest and largest
fish to take home, and the rest they leave
to rot ON the banks. Fish in large num-
Ders have run into Sausalto Bay and into
the lagoon every season for the last five
years. Last year and the year before they
were herrings, and the year preceding smell.
This Is the first year that sardines have
made their appearance, and whether they
have been driven In by other voracious fish.
by sea-lons, hundreds of which are to be
seen in the vicinity. preying on them, or by
stormy weather, the oldest Sausalitan
Lnn ~