THE GLASS-BOTTOMED BOAT 305 



kinds. This fringe rises in deep water ten or twenty 

 feet from the rocks, and inshore are myriad forms of 

 algae of various colors, to which the skippers have 

 given fanciful names, as the Yosemite, the Grand 

 Canon of the Sea, the Great Divide, etc., all of which 

 adds to the piquancy of the amusement. 



The divers often follow the boats around and, for 

 a bit, will dive for haliotis shells. As the boat moves 

 over the shallow water of Avalon Bay, exclamations 

 come quick and often, as one scene melts away and 

 another appears, and the entire range of color is 

 exhausted before the trip is over. 



The fauna of this region is particularly interesting, 

 as many of the animals seen are peculiar to it. The 

 illustrations in this book are from photographs taken 

 under my supervision, and show the various animals 

 that are seen through the glass-bottomed boat, alive 

 and under water. Care was taken to show the natural 

 environment as nearly as possible, and they are the 

 first photographs of the living Pacific Coast fishes ever 

 made, each one being the result of repeated trials, 

 made in a specially designed tank to show exact fac- 

 similes of the glass-bottomed boat scenes. I once sent 

 a diver down into Avalon Bay and followed him around 

 in a glass-bottomed boat. It was a remarkable spec- 

 tacle to see this m.an walking on the bottom of the 

 sea, pushing his way through the kelp forest. After a 

 while he sat down, crushed a sea-urchin in his hand, 

 whereupon the small fishes gathered about and fed 

 from his palm. Then he opened a wire trap, which I 

 had provided, placed the bait inside and held it for a 

 moment, or until a number of fishes (gold perch) 

 entered. He then closed the trap, and seeing that the 



