fish I landed with a fly was, as I have related, so large that I could not get him into my southern California creel; so I laid him on top and had him photographed with savage exultation to prove the yarn.1

1 Here are some of the names I copied from Costar's Hall of Fame on the Rio de las Plumas in the county of Feathers:

Sam Wells, 2 lbs.; George Gray, 24 lbs.; C. L. Leonard, salmon, 34 lbs.; J. H. Hibbert, 24 lbs.; R. S. Starks, 8 lbs.; C. L. Leonard, 71⁄2 lbs.; C. F. Holder, 71⁄2 lbs. (Oct. 5, 1907); Dr. J. E. Rodly, 2 lbs.; F. W. Frost, 5 lbs.; J. F. Buckly, 10 lbs.; C. L. Leonard, 42 lbs.; C. F. Carpenter, 3 lbs.; H. M. Merritt, 61⁄2 lbs.; J. A. Lansberger, 41⁄2 lbs.; John Silva, 71⁄2 lbs.; H. H. Lockwood, 6 lbs.; C. L. Leonard, 7 lbs.; A. P. Costar, 4 lbs.; H. W. Howard, 34 lbs.

6

FOR

CHAPTER V

ON THE TRAIL OF A MOONFISH

'OR several days those who go down to the sea in ships on dark nights had reported having seen in the little bay, patches of fire, as though the full moon, which rose over the Sierras to the east, had fallen from her high estate and was wandering about in the kelp beds or among the "dark, unfathomed caves" which characterize the channel islands of California. Some stated that these globes were four or five feet across, and the reports were so numerous and positive that even discounting them fifty per cent., as the scientific evidences of a layman, it was apparent that some extraordinary animal had arrived, nothing very remarkable here, as the waters of the lower part of California appear to be common ground for a strange variety of fishes.

The newcomer was described as the moon herself, with all her luminous splendor, scintillating with phosphorescent glare; now at the full, a perfect oval, ablaze with light, moving slowly along, then as suddenly becoming less and less

(1) The Leap

(2) Falling Back

Photographs by C. L. Leonard