146 MARINE ANIMALS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 



littoral fauna, especially on their western shore within the Gulf 

 of Mexico. Here swims the Portuguese Man-of-War, borne gayly 

 along on the surface of the water by its brilliant float, here the 

 blue Velella sets its oblique sail to the wind, and hosts of the 

 lighter and more brightly tinted corals fringe the shore with a 

 many-colored shrubbery. In these waters are also found the blue 

 and yellow Angel-fish, the Parrot-fish (Scams), and the strange 

 Porcupine-fish (Diodon). Vegetable life is comparatively scanty 

 in these tropical waters, where there are scarcely any sea-weeds, 

 except the corallines or limestone Alga3 of the reefs. The shore 

 of the Gulf of Mexico, as a whole, has much the same character 

 as that of the Carolinas, until we reach the point where the 

 mountains and plateau of Mexico come down to the coast. From 

 this point to the Isthmus of Panama the coast is again rocky. 



Crossing the Isthmus and following the Pacific shore of the 

 continent northward, we find a sandy open shore alternating with 

 rocky beaches as far north as Acapulco. Along this coast there 

 is to be found a great variety of corals, especially Sea-fans, 

 growing on the rocks, but no reef. The Pocillopora, an Acale- 

 phian coral, the Pacific representative of the Millepore of Florida, 

 is especially abundant. On the peninsula of Lower California we 

 come again upon a rocky coast, with steep bluffs, extending into 

 the sea. Within the Gulf of California are found, on its sandy 

 coast, peculiar kinds of Sea-urchins, Spatangoids, and Clypeas- 

 troids, which occur nowhere else on this coast. From Cape St. 

 Lucas up to the Straits of Fuca, with the exception of the large 

 fresh-water estuary which forms the port of San Francisco, there 

 is not a harbor of any consequence. The whole shore is most 

 inhospitable, and the violent northwest winds in summer, and 

 the southeast winds in winter, render it still more bleak and diffi 

 cult of approach. In consequence of these conditions, the fauna 

 is scanty along a great part of the shore ; the best spots for collect 

 ing are the beaches, near the head of the peninsula, opposite the 

 islands of Santa Barbara and San Diego, and that within the 

 harbor of San Francisco. On the former, large Craw-fishes abound 

 (Palinurus), akin to those of Florida, though specifically different 

 from them. In the latter, the great amount of fresh water 

 prevents the fauna from being exclusively marine ; this harbor is, 



