The record-union., 1893-09-02
PACIFIC COAST FISH.
something About the Varieties and
Their Habits.

Their Habits.
Special Correspondence RECoRD-UN1ox,I
Coming up the coast by steamer from
san Diego one notices the numberless
fishing stations that prove California
with her fruit and flowers can also
furnish fish in any size, from the gray
back whale 10 the silvery smelt. At the
whaling stations of Point Iona, or Point
Hartford, we can inhale the not too sweet
Odor of whale oil. Whales are not found
inland, but a whale would feel very
much Mt home (for perfumes and music
recalls old memOries) if he passed a
garden or orchard where a solution with
whale oil soap as a basis has been used to
spray trees or flowers to free them from
some insect pest.
Sharks, though not edible, as the flesh
is coarse, are often caught in the fisher
mems nets, where they have strayed
after their prey, some unlucky smaller
fish.
Salmon are found in all the California
rivers. In the San Lorenzo Of Santa Cruz
they are easily speared from the banks
as they pass down stream on their way
to the bay. Barracudas resemble the
pike of the Eastern States, and are caught
in great numbers anywhere down the
coast.
Plompano, caught in the warm bays of
Santa Cruz. Monterey and further south,
are tine-havored little fish, like small
trout. Carp and catfish abound in the
sloughs.
Red Gods, blue Gods, white, yellow and
black are the varieties caught in the
fishermeu's nets, all species of the rock
cod, so abundant on this coast. When
fresh, the flavor is delicious. The ex-
traOrdinary brilliancy of their coIoring
makes fish net look as il ladened with
brilliant flowers. Their cOlors fade as
they die. SoIes, skates and founders are
the tlat fish. The gigantic skate is the
ugliest OF all fiat fish caught in California.
The shad is just as bony here-re-
minds one of paper of buttered pins
when cooked. The Lord made straw
berries for gift to man, and his Satanic
majesty made shad as an offset, 80 the
story goes
Herring and anchOvies are very plenty,
also seabass and smelt, or the surf tish
as boys call them south.
At Santa Cruz one can fish with all
home comforts-thati is, sit on an upturned
box and fish through a hole in the wharf
and with a worm or sea flea for bait
catch smelt by the dozens, or in ones,
twOs and threes, according to your luck
The Chinese have a number OF camps
for drying shrimps on the coast. They
boil them, then dry them on trays same
as they do fruit, then pound them up and
Win q ul1cnll5 ltidQC lOE Lue purpose
separate all the shell from the meat. They
ship large quantities of this shrimp flour
to China.
Tho squids are caught principally for
bait. on meeting school of this curious
shaped fish and you frighten them in any
way, they will Immediately cloud the
water with sepla or the fluid they eject.
The Spanish fishermen are very deft in
batting their travis with smelt. On the
pier at Santa Cruz every afternoon num-
bers OF them would be engaged batting
travis till one could imagine silver
wreaths were being made for some victor's
brow, as coil after coil was laid around
with silvery smeIt on every hook.
The fisherman who said man could
''catch the devil and all here' twitted OF
facts, for the octopus or devil fish is a
daily catch. His name is no misnOmer,
for be is as ugly as his namesake is repre-
sented TO be. Without horns, too, which
usually gives the devil a right pert
sprinkle Of an air" more enquiring than
ugly.
The bonita, a Pacific Coast fish, is often
seen as he pursues the flying fish he in
tends to make meal on. OF brilliant
blue, with dark lines, and usually two
feet long, he IS a beauty. Striped bass
ana river trout have streaks and beauty
spots particularly brilliant. The mack
erel, with his rainbow hues that change
chameleon-like as he dies, are all caught
in large quantities in California waters.
Sea urchins, OF scarlet hues or Syrian
purple dyes, vie with sea auemones of
pink, green, purple. white, yellow and
scarlet. And the star fish of red, yellow,
pink and brown speckled, although not
edible for humans, are all eaten, or eat
something. To watch a sea anemone try
ing to masticate a spiny sea urchln
dropped by d misehievous small boy
right in its mouth is funny. Whether a
tit of Indigestion follows is not known.
n star fish. apparently an unseeing, an
thinking mass, Will eat mussel and spit
out the shell. So if man don't like the