NO. 2 FRASER : SCIENTIFIC WORK, VELERO III, EASTERN PACIFIC 63 



islets, and South Coronado is 1% miles long. They are all precipitous 

 and rugged, the north island 467 feet high and the south island 672 feet. 

 For most of the year they appear very barren, but in the early spring 

 (February and March) flowers may be quite abundant. 



There is a dredging station in 14 fathoms between South Coronado 

 and the main shore. 



From Descanso Point to San Miguel Point, 26 miles, the shore takes 

 two steps, first east and then south. There are several sandy beaches, but 

 they are backed by abruptly rising bluffs or hills, and often the shore itself 

 forms a bluff. There is little protection in any part of this coast. The 

 depths increase rapidly offshore so that the shelf is narrow. 



San Miguel Point forms the northern boundary of Todos Santos Bay, 

 which provides the best protection along a great stretch of the northern 

 part of the west coast of Lower California. The town of Ensenada is 

 situated near the head of the bay. The bay, somewhat rectangular, is 9 

 miles wide at the entrance between San Miguel Point and Banda Point. 

 Lying off the latter point 3 miles are the Todos Santos Islands, which 

 offer some protection to the waters of the bay. A wind from the north- 

 west is interrupted very little. The bay is all relatively shallow except for 

 a small area north of Banda Point. An extensive lagoon lies behind a low 

 sand beach on the south shore. Much of the bottom is sand or mud, but 

 there are several rocky patches. Two dredging stations are located about 

 3 miles off San Miguel Point at the entrance to the bay. 



From Point Banda to Cape San Quentin, a distance of 90 miles, the 

 coast is quite regular, made up of three shallow bights, the northern one 

 small, from Point Banda to Santo Tomas Point, the other two much 

 more extensive — the first one from Santo Tomas Point to Cape Colnett 

 and the second from this cape to Cape San Quentin. The coast is a suc- 

 cession of sandy beaches, rugged patches with outlying kelp, and more 

 or less abrupt bluffs, with the background, hills, nearer the shore in the 

 northern portion than in the southern. The most conspicuous feature is 

 Cape Colnett, a semicircular headland that rises abruptly from the water 

 in perpendicular cliffs to a plateau 300 or 400 feet high. 



The shallow water shelf is much broader here, reaching a maximum 

 width of 17 miles. 



South of Cape San Quentin there is another bight extending to Point 

 Baja, 26 miles, resembling those last mentioned except that Cape San 

 Quentin extends southward to a long point to form the boundary of San 



