48 Fish Stories 



banded, white chinned, rolHng its azure eyes upward, while 

 its demure mate, garbed in the modest hues of a dove, loiters 

 in an arch of kelp. In the watery air float radiant shapes, 

 crystals of the sea in form, *' shaped as a bard's fancy," the 

 very ghosts of animal life, the merest tracery against the 

 blue, yet clothed in splendid vestments, glowing colors, 

 which at night encompass them in lines of flame. The most 

 remarkable of these fairy-like shapes have been named sea- 

 sapphires. 



They are almost invisible, are in reality kinsmen of the 

 crabs, floating in the current, free swimmers, yet among the 

 greatest glories of the sea. Opposite Avalon the water 

 takes on a splendid blue; all the shades of turquoise and 

 sapphire are seen, and when at night or early morning the 

 sun is low, over the sea is drawn a veil of vermilion, or old 

 rose, so that each wave is a blaze of color — green, red, 

 yellow, scarlet, purple, amber. 



If into this one should drop or scatter ten thousand gems 

 — diamonds, yellow, pink, and white; rubies, of old mines 

 and new; sapphires, from the faintest azure to the deep 

 splendid blue of the opal, tourmaline, or turquoise, he 

 would have a faint conception of the effect produced by a 

 swarm of these gems, or living sapphires, which drift along 

 in this deep-toned Black Current of Japan, where it 

 sweeps the shores of the Southern California islands. 

 Each one has a different color, and gleams and flashes 

 like a gem of the purest water; not in phosphorescent Hght, 

 but iridescent, visible at their best when the sun is overhead, 

 and sends down shafts of light that illumine the nooks and 

 corners of the mountains of the sea. Here, then, is the 

 rialto of the fishes; a highway along which splendid white 

 sea bass and others float. A few hours before this was 

 written, the authors, looking down through the window of 

 a glass-bottom boat into the kelp beds, saw scores of these 

 mighty game fishes, all over three feet long, and weighing 

 at least fifty pounds. Their backs were blue, and as they 



