THE GLASS-BOTTOM BOAT 



773 



SPOTTED KELP FISH (SEE PAGE 777) 



curious crabs are found which mimic 

 them so exactly that some experience is 

 required to see them. 



FISH THAT MIMIC THE LEAVES AND ROCKS 



Many of the fishes seen through the 

 window are mimics of remarkable clever- 

 ness. When the slow movement of the 

 water overturns the kelp and brings it 

 back again, we may see a green fish about 

 a foot long, with a long frilled dorsal fin. 

 This is the kelp fish. For protection it 

 mimics the leaf; and, not only this, you 

 note that it hangs in the water just like a 

 leaf, head up or down, so that a novice 

 would never see it unless his attention 

 was called to it by the attentive skipper, 

 who perhaps has a name for it that would 

 make the lamented Linnseus turn in his 

 grave 



Drifting along, the passenger in the 

 glass-bottom boat often sees the large 

 pelagic fishes, as the yellow tail, white sea 

 bass, or the giant black sea bass, which 

 weighs five hundred pounds and lives in 

 the kelp beds of the channel islands. 



Sharks are also sometimes seen, and on 

 the bottom, coiled up in some snug har- 

 bor between the rocks, may be seen a 

 very interesting shark called the Catalina 

 Port Jackson shark. It is about two feet 

 long, with a spine before each dorsal fin. 

 It is sluggish and feeds on crabs at night, 

 and lays a peculiar corkscrew-like egg, 

 shown with the young in the photograph. 

 For years this shark was supposed to be 

 extinct and known only by its fossil 

 spines ; but finally some one went to Port 

 Jackson, Australia, and found them alive; 

 then a species was discovered on the 

 Calif ornian coast. It is one of the com- 

 mon catches in traps at the islands, and 

 its curious eggs are sold as curiosities. 



On the bottom we see rock-like objects 

 which prove to be sculpins, so mimicking 

 the rocks and stones that at times it is 

 impossible to distinguish them, as they are 

 covered with curious barbels, which look 

 like, weeds, and are black, red, yellow, 

 and white, perfect imitations of the rocks 

 on which they lie, ready to take any kind 

 of a lure. If a panorama had been ar- 



