THE ABAL0NE8 OF CALIFORNIA 



535 



seems made of grains of gold and silver, shimmering in the penetrating 

 sunlight. Upon the face of a precipice, large specimens of the green 

 and corrugated abalones rest. The shell of each is covered with a 

 luxuriant growth of algae, hydroids and tentacled tube-worms, which 

 mask the creature from its enemies. All about are large fish which 

 swim close and peer through the glass window of the helmet. An 

 enormous sting-ray indifferently floats by. One has a fellow feeling 

 with these unfrighted denizens of the deep in the fascination of ob- 

 serving their behavior under natural conditions. 



In gathering abalones sometimes a crew is composed of six divers 

 who work without suits up to a depth of twenty feet and some of them 

 remain under water for as long as two minutes. These expert swim- 

 mers protect their eyes with glasses and wear cotton in their ears. 

 They pry off the abalones with a shucking-chisel, often filling their 

 arms on the way to the boat. Every two hours they return to the 

 launch to be warmed at the fire. It takes the united efforts of these 

 six men to equal the catch of one diver in a suit. 



The abalone has a well-developed head and a powerful, adhesive, 

 creeping foot. The shell is flattened, and the spire, which is such a 

 prominent conical structure in most snail shells, is depressed and incon- 

 spicuous in this form. The last greatly enlarged whorl contains the 

 body, especially characterized by the enormous columellar muscle, whose 

 fibers run from their origin upon the muscle scar, or center of the shell, 

 into the foot. Numerous contractile tentacles arise from the fringed 

 epipodial fold, or ruff, around the base of the foot. The gills, alimen- 

 tary system, reproductive glands, kidneys, heart and blood vessels and 

 the pallial and visceral sections of the nervous system lie to the left of 



In Diving-dress Ready for the Descent. 



