248 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



in thick weather, as it is eight miles northwest from 

 the west point of the island and is forty feet high. 

 It is the top of a mountain rising from the sea, and 

 with nothing to warn the mariner on a dark night 

 except his presumable knowledge that B egg's Rock is 

 somewhere about. There should be a bell buoy here. 

 You can see B egg's Rock ten miles off in clear weather. 

 It is protected by a circle of Nereocystis, or kelp, and 

 a reef runs north and south from it almost three hun- 

 dred feet in each direction. That it is a singularly 

 dangerous peak is evident from the fact that at night 

 a ship might take a sounding of sixty fathoms and five 

 minutes later crash onto Begg's Rock. The last time I 

 saw it the seas were enveloping it in their fury of spume. 

 They would hit it and climb at least two hundred feet 

 into the air — a splendid and impressive spectacle. 



There is deep water off San Nicolas, especially to 

 the north, where there is a depression over a mile deep; 

 and between San Nicolas and San Clemente there is 

 a canon over a mile and a half deep. Southeasterly 

 from San Clemente there is an abysmal deep of six 

 thousand feet. All this enables one to form a picture 

 of the pinnacled or needle-like appearance these islands 

 would present if the ocean were to withdraw and leave 

 them dry. 



Little is known of the history of San Nicolas. It 

 belonged to the Spanish by right of conquest, and in 

 1542, when Cabrillo discovered the country, it was 

 populated. I found quantities of enormous red aba- 

 lones on the mounds. 



Despite its desolate appearance, the island was, and 

 is, a fine fishing-ground, abounding in abalones, cray- 

 fish, and game of the sea of all kinds. Yellowtails 



