THE GLASS-BOTTOM BOAT 



'65 



elbows comfortably resting on the padded 

 edge. As the boat moves slowly along, 

 every object on the bottom can be dis- 

 tinctly seen, as the glass magnifies it. 

 The best view doubtless is had from the 

 small boats, as they can go well inshore, 

 but both have their advantages. 



The small army of men or skippers 

 each has his individuality, and while their 

 zoology is not by the card, it is original ; 

 and as that of the average voyager is 

 rather hazy, it makes little difference 

 whether a sea-hare is described as an in- 

 sect, as the public long ago accepted the 

 dictum of Montgomery, the poet, that the 

 coral animal is an insect, and all the 

 zoologists since have been unable to 

 change their opinion. The object lesson 

 of the trip is a very valuable one, how- 

 ever, and a better or more fascinating 

 way to study marine zoology could not 

 be designed, as a marvelous horde of 

 strange and beautiful creatures are 

 passed in review. 



SURROUNDED BY A FOREST OF KELP 



The submarine scenery is particularly 

 attractive here. The entire island, 

 nearly sixty miles around, is lined with 

 a forest of Nereocystis, or kelp, a huge 

 vine whose leaves rise and fold and un- 

 fold in the water, the abiding place of 

 countless animals of all kinds. This 

 fringe rises in deep water ten or twenty 

 feet from the rocks, and inshore are 

 myriad forms of algse of various colors, 

 to which the skippers have given fanciful 

 names, as the Yosemite, the Grand 

 Canon of the Sea, the Great Divide, etc., 

 all of which adds to the piquancy of the 

 amusement. 



The divers often follow the boats 

 around, and for a bit will dive for haliotis 

 shells, which doubtless they have planted, 

 though almost every rock has its living 

 shell. As the boat moves over the shal- 

 low water of Avalon Bay, exclamations 

 come quick and often, as one scene melts 

 away and another appears, and the entire 

 range of color is exhausted before the 

 trip is over. 



The fauna of this region is particularly 

 interesting, as many of the animals seen 



are peculiar to it. The accompanying il- 

 lustrations are from photographs taken 

 under the writer's supervision and show 

 the various animals seen through the 

 glass-bottom boat, alive and under water. 

 Care was taken to show the natural en- 

 vironment as nearly as possible, and they 

 are the first photographs of the living 

 Pacific Coast fishes ever made, each one 

 being the result of repeated trials and 

 many failures. The kelp itself forms a 

 beautiful picture, its rich olive hue when 

 it catches the sun looking not unlike a 

 great band of amber against the vivid tor- 

 quoise of the water, as deep water is so 

 near the shore that often one can dive 

 into blue water from the rocks. 



A common form in the weed is the 

 giant California star-fish, its white tuber- 

 cles against the pink or red surface mak- 

 ing it a striking figure against the green, 

 red, or purple weeds. Near it will be 

 seen the large California sea-cucumber 

 lying on the rocks, prone and motionless, 

 and near by the long-spined sea-urchin, 

 very similar to the one of the Florida 

 reef, though not so long. With it is a 

 small, pure white sea-urchin from deeper 

 water, a charming contrast to the green 

 weed that is in constant motion, waving 

 and undulating in the waves that affect 

 even this quiet bay. 



THE HIDEOUS OCTOPUS 



We now drift over a rocky area where 

 the water appears to be a pale blue. A 

 reddish-yellow crawfish waves its ser- 

 rated spines back and forth from a crev- 

 ice, and passing before him is a hideous 

 octopus, searching for crabs or anything 

 that it can lay its tentacles on. This, 

 without question, is the most fascinating 

 animal to be seen through the glass 

 window. Timid, constantly changing 

 color, hideous to a degree, having a pe- 

 culiarly devilish expression, it is well 

 named the Mephistopheles of the sea, and 

 with the bill of a parrot, the power to 

 adapt its color to almost any rock, and 

 to throw out a cloud of smoke or ink, it 

 well deserves the terror it arouses. The 

 average specimen is about two feet 

 across, but I have seen individuals four- 



