backed devil, gaping, wide-eyed, shining
and silvery as he rolled, a big tuna if there ever was one, and he was
conquered.

When Dan lunged with the gaff the tuna made a tremendous splash that
deluged us. Then Dan yelled for another gaff. I was quick to get it.
Next it was for me to throw a lasso over that threshing tail. When I
accomplished this the tuna was ours. We hauled him up on the stern,
heaving, thumping, throwing water and blood; and even vanquished he was
magnificent. Three hours and fifty minutes! The number fifty stayed with
me. As I fell back in a chair, all in, I could not see for my life why
any fisherman would want to catch more than one large tuna.

XIV

AVALON, THE BEAUTIFUL

If you are a fisherman, and aspire to the study or conquest of the big
game of the sea, go to Catalina Island once before it is too late.

The summer of 1917 will never be forgotten by those fishermen who were
fortunate enough to be at Avalon. Early in June, even in May, there were
indications that the first record season in many years might be
expected. Barracuda and white sea-bass showed up in great schools; the
ocean appeared to be full of albacore; yellowtail began to strike all
along the island shores and even in the bay of Avalon; almost every day
in July sight of broadbill swordfish was reported, sometimes as many as
ten in a day; in August the blue-fin tuna surged in, school after
school, in vast numbers; and in September returned the Marlin, or
roundbill swordfish that royal-purple swashbuckler of the Pacific.

This extraordinary run of fish appeared like old times to the boatmen
and natives who could look back over many Catalina years. The cause, of
course, was a favorable season when the sardines and anchovies came to
the island in incalculable numbers. Acres and acres of these little bait
fish drifted helplessly to and fro, back and forth with the tides, from
Seal Rocks to the west end. These schools were not broken up until the
advent of the voracious tuna; and when they arrived the ocean soon
seemed littered with small, amber-colored patches, each of which was a
densely packed mass of sardines or anchovies, drifting with the current.
It has not yet been established that swordfish feed on these schools,
but the swordfish were there in abundance, at any rate; and it was
reasonable to suppose that some of the fish they feed on were in pursuit
of the anchovies.

Albacore feeding on the surface raise a th