Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/571

Rh strong impression on me. As three of us were out one afternoon off the south shore beyond the reefs fishing in about sixty fathoms, there came floating past with the tide a school of jelly fishes, the common Aurelia. I had before seen Aurelia almost cover the surface of the sea, but never before had I been able to look down, as then, and see them in the depths of the sea. They were seemingly without end, a vast procession, smaller and smaller the deeper one gazed, until they seemed mere specks, such was the clearness of the water.

For use in dredging a much larger steamer (Fig. 25), the Intrepid, was for a part of the time at our command in place of the Minnow. This steamer was provided with a boom in front of the pilot house, which much facilitated dredging operations, and the forward deck was

a convenient place for inspecting the dredgings, assorting tows, etc. This was the steamer that had been employed by Mr. Agassiz during his explorations in 1894. With her we made, besides other excursions, several trips to North Rocks (Fig. 26)—three sole survivors of a land mass that doubtless extended in previous times along the northern border of the lagoon, as the present land area now does along its southern rim. It is only on the calmest days and at lowest tide that one may safely land on the plateau from which these three pinnacles, called North Rocks, arise. The steamer can approach within a half or a quarter of a mile and then must anchor, while in rowboats the collectors