180 SHELLS OF SAN PEDRO BAY——WILLIAMSON. 
are most abundant. A laguna, known as Ballona Harbor, lies between 
Santa Monica and Redondo Beach. The latter is noted more for its 
pebbles than shells. South of Redondo is a long line of mountainous 
foothills that rise abruptly from the ocean. These foothills, with 
their mesas, are known as the Palos Verdes Hills. The rocky cliffs of 
the hills are called “points” where a trail down their sides makes it 
possible to descend to the beach below. One of these points, about 
seven miles south of Relondo, is called Point Vincente, where at low 
tide the Haliotis Cracherodii with other rock shells are found. Portu- 
guese Bend, with its cave in the solid rock running nearly 100 feet 
under the cliff, lies about two miles south of Point Vincente. Out from 
this cave, whose stone floor is daily and almost hourly mopped by old 
ocean, the rocks at low tide lie uncovered for some distance on the 
beach. This is especially so at low tides in the winter, when our 
beautiful Haliotis fulgens (or splendens) is collected. The Lottia gigan- 
tea is most abundant at this point. From Portuguese Bend, Whites 
Point and Point Fermin (the light-house) are distinctly visible as they 
extend out into the ocean. Whites Point was at one time noted for 
its Haliotis Cracherodii, but continuous collecting has almost despoiled 
it of these shells. Point Fermin lies almost two miles south of Whites 
Point. Here as well as at the latter point Chlorostoma and Acmea 
are plentiful. Between Point Fermin and San Pedro Bay is the pier 
known as the “old landing.” Timms Point, in the bay, is a small, flat 
sand bar that lies below the western part of the city of San Pedro, 
which is built on the cliffs above the bay. Bulla nebulosa and Liocar- 
dium substriatum are found at Timms Point, near the oyster bed. 
Across from the town of San Pedro, in the bay, are two little islands 
that are connected by along wall of stones known as the “breakwater.” 
This breakwater is 14 miles long. Dead Man’s Island (and any one who 
has read Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” can conjecture why 
the island is so named) is little more than a miniature promontory of 
stone, with sandy soil on the summit. Around the top of this island, 
in the loose, sandy soil is a bed of Quaternary (or Postpliocene) fossil 
shells.* These shells are continually being washed out, and, falling 
below, they lie in the rock pools in company with the living shells. 
The breakwater that connects Dead Man’s Island with Rattlesnake 
Island is the home of the Acmaa and Chlorostoma, Rattlesnake Island 
is one long, sinuous sand bar, destitute of vegetation, and in its widest 
part hardly more than a quarter of a mile across. Some of our rarest 
shells are found washed ashore in the drift on this island. Here on the 
bay side are Chione and Cerithidea as well as in the slough that lies be- 
tween the towns of San Pedro and Wilmington. Between the latter 
and the town of Long Beach the San Gabriel River empties into the bay. 
*At the base of this island are rocks that belong to the Pliocene and possibly 
Miocene strata, and many fossils of these older formations are washed out of the 
rocks by the ocean, and are collected with recent shells on the beach. 
