The California Brown Pelican 



But if you insist upon turning buccaneer "just for this once," man 

 the thwarts and help us pull this gear from the launch over to the landing 

 place. A benevolent Government, under necessity of maintaining an 

 automatic light upon this dangerous headland, has provided a crude 

 system of ladders whereby the intrepid, albeit camera-laden, may scale 

 this 200-foot wall of basalt. The top of the island, once gained, is sudden- 

 ly level. There is nothing visible save grass and sea and birds — these and 

 quaint groves of a palm-like vegetable under whose scanty shadows the 

 pelicans are huddled. It is incredible ! a bird squatting upon a nest which 

 rests upon the ground, and yet looms half as high as a palm tree! The 

 illusion is perfect; but the "tree" is Leptosyne gigantea, a composite, which 



Taken on Anacapa Island 



BILL 



Photo by Donald R. Dickey 



rises to a height of six or eight feet, and which supports on naked stems, 

 two inches in diameter, a sudden crown of leaves, finely divided, like those 

 of a carrot, and a few coarse yellow flowers. 



We unlimber our photographic gear, and dedicate a leather case to 



i 97 8 



