2i6 The American Naturalist. [Apri, 
rocks more numerous and the walls of the canon more and 
more precipitant. The same conglomerate is present here as 
at Star Canon, near which our schooner is anchored. 
I made a sketch of the place and took again to boat pass- 
ing under the brow of Punta del Diablo, one of the grandest 
points of the island. 
Under the base of Diablo opens " Dovil's Canon " or " Devil's 
Cove," a most picturesque, wild and rugged combination of 
land and sea. In this part of Santa Cruz there are no beaches 
and no zone of kelp, but the water sinks to a great depth 
hard by the shore, and dredging was impossible with the im- 
plements at my disposal. At the base of Punta del Diablo- 
there are two conical elevations rising as islands out of the 
sea. These elevations when approached from the east appear 
perfectly symmetrical, the more distant from the point beings 
capped by an eagle's high nest. The hills are green to their 
Near these conical islands we rowed into a grotto of won- 
derful beauty. It extends deep under the mountain and as 
our boat made its way in, we saw many seals and sea-lions 
on the ledges of the rock. As we rowed in, these huge ani- 
mals dove into the sea with hoarse barking and swam into the 
depths of the cave. We fired at them with our rifles and the 
reverberation was something deafening. In the cave, which 
extended many feet beyond, a tremendous sea was rushing at 
every incoming wave. The whole grotto reminded me of 
the famous grotto of Capri in the Bay of Naples. 
Beyond Punta del Diablo the cliffs take the form of a gi- 
gantic saw, the top of the precipices being worn out into val- 
leys which are symmetrical one after another. Beneath these 
saw-like valleys the rock shows much erosion especially near 
the level of the sea At one place a perfectly formed human 
figure which appears to be in the act of stepping into the sea,, 
can be made out. A tremendous surf breaks on the base of 
the cliffs and here and there where there are partially sub- 
marine grottos or caves the escaping air throws the water to 
great heights with a loud noise.' Behind us the monster 
^These spouts of water thrown into the air by the resistance of the air compressed 
