Sea-side Study on the Coast of California. 39 
depth near the shore that it is absent. While it may shut out 
effectually many floating things from the neighborhood of the 
wharf, it shelters in its fronds many others; while the root-like 
attachments to the rocks harbor many interesting animals. Between 
the zone of kelp and the shore was not found to be a profitable 
dredging-ground. The interval appears to be filled with decaying 
fragments of the kelp, and the dredge comes up filled with this 
debris. Dredging in the belt of the kelp itself is impossible. 
The best dredging at Santa Barbara is in the channel about four 
miles outside the outer border of the kelp. The rocks in places 
entangle and catch the dredge, and the bottom is, except in one or 
two places, very rocky. Off Punta del Castillo, near Santa Bar- 
bara, there is some good ground for dredging, but it is hard to pulj 
the dredge on account of the many submarine rocks. From Santa 
Barbara across the channel to the Santa Barbara Island, there are 
many rocks, but the dredging is good in places. The vicinity of 
Carpenteria is the best place of all about Santa Barbara for dredging, 
The island of Santa Cruz,! one of the most beautiful islands of she 
Santa Barbara group, offers fine surface collecting. The dredging 
is difficult on account of the many submarine rocks and the depth 
of the water. To one visiting the island for zodlogical study no 
better anchorage can be found than a small cafion resorted to by 
otter hunters near Punta Diablo. The shore collecting on the beach 
at Santa Barbara is poor. At Punta del Castillo many interesting 
animals were found. 
Santa Barbara on the whole offers good facilities for the study of 
marine zodlogy. The fauna of the shore is not rich, but it is varied, 
and that of the neighboring islands is all that could be desired. 
The surface fauna of the Santa Barbara channel is very rich and 
dredging in it is excellent. I do not believe the shore at Santa 
Barbara can compare with that to the south by Del Mar and San 
Diego as a collecting place for the naturalist, but the dredging is 
good and the surface collecting all that could be wished. 
' Especial interest is attached to a study of this island from the curious 
distribution and character of the flora as compared with that of the 
main land. This island, continental to all outward appearances, has a 
more peculiar flora than the Bermudas, although they are only a little 
over twenty miles from the shore, while the Bermudas are five hundred. 
No more interesting problems can be studied in regard to the geograph- 
ical distribution of animals than the character of the life of the islands 
near Santa Barbara. 
