214 Recreations of a Sportsman 



carried away to the various museums of the 

 world during the past two decades. 



From the standpoint of a layman San Cle- 

 mente would appear to have been at one time 

 a crater; its west sides are still standing. At 

 what is known as the east end the crater walls 

 are filled with caves and blow-holes of extraor- 

 dinary size and nature, while to the west great 

 clots and gushes of lava can be seen, which have 

 poured out into the sea, forming various points 

 and inlets. The eastern side of the suppositi- 

 tious crater has sunk into the sea, doubtless a 

 mile or more offshore, and the best fishing at 

 the island is in this ancient stricken crater, 

 whose walls rise to a height of one or two thou- 

 sand feet, rent with strange and fearsome 

 canons, rifts, and gorges that have more the 

 appearance of the artificial properties of some 

 spectacular extravaganza than the results of 

 the varied throes of nature. 



The island is twenty miles long and from a 

 few hundred yards to three miles wide. It be- 

 gins in a hollow blow-hole or craterette at the 

 northwest and gradually rises for twenty miles 

 or more to its highest elevation near the east 

 end, then drops to the point where, reaching out 

 into the sea, is an enormous mass, a veritable 

 Giant's Causeway, a mountain of columns. 



In the deep canons and protected spots, where 

 water finds place, verdure and low trees grow, 



