THE GLASS-BOTTOMED BOAT 311 



ground swell, just sufficient to lift the curtains of the 

 weed and move them to one side, then back again. 

 Strange things constantly appear. Now the vista is 

 green. Presto! the tidal scene-shifter makes it purple 

 of a gorgeous hue; then comes a cavern of the sea, 

 ''In gulfs enchanted where the Siren sings," — faced 

 with a most delicate green, in which swim blue and 

 gold fishes. 



Drifting out a little, into water thirty feet deep, we 

 see that Santa Catalina is a big offshore Sierra, as 

 we can now look down the precipitous slopes into 

 water of an indigo blue shade, the most exquisite blue 

 imaginable, with a background here and there of dim 

 shadowy shapes. Only those who have been divers 

 or who have gone on a cruise on a Santa Catalina 

 glass-bottomed boat can appreciate their real beauty. 

 Lying on one side is a mass of peculiar mazarine blue. 

 In a moment we make it out as a school of blue-eyed 

 perch of California, a fish about a foot long, with eyes 

 like turquoises. In the peculiar light that sifts down 

 through the kelp they appear blue, and are all headed 

 in the same direction and lying near the bottom. 



In mid-water are countless kelp fishes, graceful 

 swimmers, while below them there are others still 

 more radiant in yellow, white, brown, and red. They 

 lie upon the rocks as shown in the photographs. Some- 

 times a shark sails slowly along with its remoras, or 

 sucking fishes, following or fastened to it. They will 

 often wander away and look curiously up into the big 

 window down into \\'hich peer scores of faces in a row. 



The big glass-bottomed boats, which hold one hun- 

 dred passengers, travel up and down the coast. They 

 visit the sea-lion rookeries and allow the voyagers to 



