212 The American Naturalist. [April, 
The "Angel Dolly," which is at anchor off the wharf at 
Santa Barbara, was found to be admirably suited for my trip, 
and after a few preparations, I embarked on her, and hoisting 
her sails, we turned her southward to the rocky cliffs of the 
island of the Holy Cross. The ," Angel Dolly" is a small 
schooner of about twenty tons burden, with a cabin, which 
the passengers share with the captain, a forecastle for the 
crew, and a capacious hold. The crew consisted of a captain, 
one man before the mast, and a cook. The cabin I found well 
suited for my scientific work, and I transformed it into a lab- 
oratory, the mess table serving well for microscopic work 
when the vessel was on an even keel. My dredge, ropes, and 
nets were well stored in the hold, and at noon, in the middle 
of March, we hove anchor, set her sail, and went to sea. It 
had been my intention to visit the island of San Miguel, but 
the wind was so light that we shaped our course directly to 
Santa Cruz. 
The weather, when we left Santa Barbara, was foggy, and 
after getting outside the zone of giant kelp,' we were be- 
calmed. As a result we drifted back and forth all the after- 
noon, and finally found ourselves down the coast towards 
Carpenteria, the storehouse and wharf of which place we saw 
a few miles away, at nightfall. Although the distance across 
the channel is about twenty-eight miles, we made little pro- 
gress that night,and drifted about in thefog until Sunday morn- 
ing. After many calms, puffs of air, and baffling winds, we 
sighted, Sunday morning at ten o'clock, the lofty peak of 
Punta del Diablo, the most lofty headland on the island of 
Santa Cruz. We ran in toward the land, through the fog, to 
the neighborhood of the shore, and anchored in a small fiord 
at the base of Monte Diablo. This fiord, which we will call 
Star Cafion, is enclosed by lofty cliffs many hundred feet 
high. As we sailed into it, I saw, for the first time on the 
Pacific ocean, a large Salpa, which rivals the Salpa maxima 
of the Mediterranean, a floating Ascidian, the "solitary 
nta Barbara. It 
composed of the floating fronds of 
three hundred yards from the shore. This zone imparts a highly characteristic 
appearance to the coast of many parts of Southern California. 
