FISHING AND HUNTING. 97 
and crevices, and at certain stages of 
water these are the mouths of so many 
spouting geysers, as each wave comes in 
and beats against the stone roof that con¬ 
fines it. Woe to the person who tries to 
cross just as a high wave reaches its max¬ 
imum strength in the cave beneath ! He 
will get the quickest and most effectual 
bath of his lifetime. Once on the sea¬ 
ward face a long line of caves is presented 
to view. 
The high hills here are hard conglom¬ 
erate, and the waves of the Gulf of Cali¬ 
fornia, as we call it (the Gulf of Cortez 
as it was first named, and is yet called by 
most Mexicans), have cut far under the 
cliffs, leaving overhanging masses of 
rock, sometimes hundreds of feet in 
depth, as measured along the roofs under 
which we walked. They looked forbid- 
