308 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



holds the boat over it, and every motion of the 

 curious creature is seen as it opens and shuts and 

 pumps its way through the clear water. Countless 

 small jellies fill the water at times, most graceful 

 shapes, some that have never been described; others 

 rare elsewhere are common here. Such is the Pyro- 

 soma, one of the luminous compound ascidians. It 

 is a barrel-shaped animal with one end open. Speci- 

 mens six feet long have been seen. Dr. Moseley, the 

 English naturalist, describes one which he placed on 

 deck, writing his name on it and seeing the letters 

 come out in lines of fire. The Bay of Avalon is some- 

 times filled with them, and now we see them pumping 

 their way along beneath the window-like crystal vases, 

 with other luminous forms, as the giant Salpa; the 

 latter now singly, now in chains, among the most 

 beautiful of the phosphorescent animals, 



A striking fish is the sheepshead, with black and 

 crimson bands in the male, and gray in the female. 

 The young are attractive little fishes splashed with 

 blue. 



At times, after great storms, the voyager, peering 

 down through the glass window, sees strange and 

 weird animals new to science or so rare as not to be 

 seen alive by one in fifty thousand. Such is the deal 

 fish, seen lying on a weed, about three feet long, a 

 band of purest silver; when it moves or swims it 

 appears to undulate like a ribbon. Specimens of an 

 allied form twenty feet long or more have been found 

 near here. The fish lives in the deep sea, doubtless, 

 and only at rare intervals comes to the surface to be 

 seen or caught in the nets of the fishermen. 



As we drift along, the rocks are now seen to be 



