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Byways Around San Francisco Bay by William E. Hutchinson
page 42 of 65 (64%)

[Illustration: THE BREAKING WAVES]

We pass over a school of rock cod--large, lazy fellows--who take life
easy, while small, slim tommy-cod dart in and out among the rocks or
hide under the mosses. Steel heads, as spotted as an adder, glide
close to the glass as if to investigate, then dart away pursued by
some larger fish, who look upon them as their lawful prey.

Over by that rock a hermit crab has taken possession of a sea snail's
shell, and set up housekeeping; with body partly hidden he waves his
long bony tentacles, while his beady eyes stare at us from the doorway
of his home.

Now a sea grotto passes beneath us, marvelously beautiful with its
frostlike tracery. Its arched openings are hung with a tapestry of
pink sea moss, which swings back and forth to the action of the waves,
as if moved by some invisible hand. We get a glimpse, in passing, of
the interior view with its white, pebbly floor, in which the basket
starfish have possession--a fitting reception room for sea nymph or
mermaid. Pillars of stone incrusted with barnacles and periwinkles
rise all around, while long tendrils of sea ferns wave like banners
around their base.

[Illustration: THE GLASS-BOTTOM BOAT]

Our boatman tells us that we are about to pass from "The Garden of the
Sea Gods" into "Hell's Half-Acre." What a change in a moment's time! A
desert of rock tumbled in a heterogeneous mass, all shapes and sizes,
as if thrown by some giant hand into grotesque and fantastic shapes.
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