Fishes on the Mountains of the Sea 49 



moved slowly among the long fluted leaves, the sight was 

 one long to be remembered. 



Near by, entering the forest, is the yellowtail or amber 

 fish, robed in silver, its back green, its fins yellow and a 

 streak of yellow running down its sides from head to tail. 

 This is the game fish of the people; sometimes running in 

 schools, and always to be found along the kelp beds with 

 the barracuda, kelp and black sea-bass. 



If the surface regions, the slopes of the mountains, are 

 interesting, what shall we say to the horde of bottom fishes, 

 which creep in from the deep sea, and live and hide at 

 various altitudes? The bottom is often a mass of kelp, 

 covered inshore with a countless variety of weeds; and in 

 drifting along one is constantly regaled with new forms, 

 startling colors, varying from the vivid translucent greens 

 to the iridescent gleams of some bush-like form. Part of 

 this inshore forest is over two feet in height, and forms a 

 mosaic of brilliant color along shore, moving to and fro in 

 the waves, thus opening up other attractions in greater 

 depths. Many of the weeds are incrusted with lime-secret- 

 ing forms, and when closely examined reveal new and 

 greater beauties. 



Some rocks are covered with the flower-like Serpulae that 

 blossom and disappear, their cups vying with the real flowers 

 of the land in color, tint, harmony and shade. At the 

 slightest shock they disappear, then slowly bloom again. 

 Here are the anemones — giants of the coral tribe, six or 

 eight inches across, in all shades from mauve to white and 

 purple and its variants. The sea-cucumber lies like a slug 

 across some azure-hued rock, and in every crevice are seen 

 the black waving spines of the echinus. In the lesser weed 

 that waves forward and back with the restless sea, is the 

 kelp-fish, long, slender, its fins and tints a strange mimicry 

 of the kelp. Instead of swimming about like the rest of 

 the fishes, it poises among the weed, literally standing on its 

 head, waving with the resilient forest in which it lives, and 



