Point Lobos 197 



shades of dark-massed trees, and even the rocky walls 

 are yet bedecked with storm-enduring flowers. Some- 

 times the densest kind of fog comes on as if heaven's 

 whitest, softest, purest clouds came down to gently close 

 the sense of sight and bid us use our ears. As in the 

 song of the ancient mariner, "we cannot choose but 

 hear. ' ' We hear the barking of the seals, the scream of 

 the sea-birds, jostling each other on that island's top; 

 the murmur of the softened waves as now they rush in 

 streams through hidden caverns of the rock beneath us, 

 nor less the dripping of the upper waters falling in 

 gentle raindrops from the swaying lichens over and 

 about our heads or even trickling in tiny rivulets adown 

 the trees. Point Lobos is a charming place, the sea, the 

 mountains, and the woods; what more can you seek? 

 Here is the most lovely bit of ocean scenery that some 

 Americans have ever known, or, at least, have had op- 

 portunity to admire. 



But these are usual charms: these possibly may be 

 found elsewhere. In the turmoil of this mundane life 

 few of us have wide experience. Each knows his own, 

 unknown to others, and for each his own is good. But 

 Lobos has some special and for the student some peculiar 

 graces. Here is geology. The foundations of the earth 

 are uncovered; the very core of the mountains is laid 

 bare. Upon these ancient bases primeval all sorts of 

 rocks have been laid down. Professor Lawson of the 

 University of California, who has studied the geology of 

 the region for us, calls peculiar even the granite here 

 exposed; he also names it pre-cretaceous, which means 



