e78 Rambles Round San Francisco. 351 
Below this line of cliffs lie detached masses of rocks of various 
sizes, and some of the smallest of these, near to us, are exposed 
at low tide sufficiently for our inspection. 
Upon the farthest away and largest of these detached rocks (out 
of our sight now, hidden by the southern cape of the bay), is the 
home of the sea-lions; sea-wolves or Lobos marinos of the 
Spaniards. On our right the sandy shore continues for about 
three quarters of a mile, when the rocks again approach the sea, 
fringing it as far as Fort Point, where stands the brick fort built 
to defend the Golden Gate, but superseded now by extensive 
earth-works on the hills above. We can see also the fortifications 
of Lime Point, on the Marin county shore of the entrance to the 
harbor, 
The rocks nearest the water are literally covered with stalked 
barnacles (Pollicipes) in bunches the size of the fist, and among 
them, conspicuous at a distance from their bright coloration, are 
groups of the common five-rayed starfish of the coast (Asterias 
equalis Stm). This stoutly-built starfish is remarkable from the 
fact that about half the individuals are of a bright purple tint, 
while the other half are an equally bright gamboge yellow. Out 
of several hundreds that I have seen, none were intermediate 
between these two types of color, and none, so far as I remember, 
showed spots or blotches of the two colors. Inside the harbor of 
San Francisco this starfish is abundant, and another species, 
Asterias gigantea, which attains a diameter of two feet, is also 
occasionally found, but I am not aware that the common pen- 
tagonal starfish of the coast, Asteropsis imbricata, has ever been 
taken within the heads, and the large twenty-armed Pycnopodia 
helianthoides does not occur so far south. On the rocks near 
Fort Point, adhering to the surface and of the same green tint 
with the seaweed around it, I have found a small Asteroid which 
I believe has not yet been scientifically described. It usually has 
six arms but some specimens have fewer, its surface is more even 
than that of A. ochracea, and in size it is a very dwarf, measuring 
about an inch across the arms. 
But we must return to our examination of the rocks or the tide 
will soon bar our access to them. We secure several specimens 
of two species of chiton, Mopalia hindsii and Katherina tunicata, 
but it takes close looking to find them, as they lie close in cran- 
nies and among mussels and barnacles, and, moreover, are not 
