THE ISLAND OF SAN CLEMENTE 151 



shores become more and more abrupt as the island 

 rises gradually from the west or north, flat-topped to 

 some extent. Wherever rocks appear on the coast 

 the sea has eaten into them; in a storm the sea rolls 

 in with a roar, to be sent back in a great hissing silvery 

 spout, as if the land resented the insidious and brutal 

 attack. About midway down the south side the cliffs 

 appear; and here is a vast cave eaten out of the rock, 

 so large indeed that it forms a little harbor. As we 

 sailed by in 1909, some Chinese abalone-hunters had 

 made their headquarters near it. 



When there is a storm this place becomes a veritable 

 maelstrom, and the water is flung a great distance into 

 the air. From here on to China Point there are count- 

 less caves, large and small, from which the sea bursts 

 and foams; but it is not until we round Cape Pinchot, 

 at the east end, that the region of caves is found. 

 Here is a series of six or seven very large caverns, 

 just at the water's edge and running in some forty 

 or fifty feet, literaUy cut out by the sea. One of 

 these is a two-storied cave; that is, the cave has a 

 cellar down through which one can pass and reach 

 the ocean. 



In one of these caves I found in 1909 a wrecked 

 boat. Near it was a cave just at the surface into 

 which the sea would drive, sending the compressed 

 air out with such force that the impact was almost 

 sufficient to knock a man down, sending the water in 

 a volume of foam many feet high. The cliffs rise 

 precipitously to a great height and are literally filled 

 with caves of all kinds and sizes, visible far offshore. 



One large cave, which must have been fifty feet 

 across the opening, stood out half-way up the moun- 



