“‘It is a good thing we saw them dress you up in the afternoon to find how the things were going to fit you,’ said another dog, ‘or we would never have gotten a peep at you, for they shut us in at sundown and you did not appear until midnight.’
“That is the whole story,” concluded Billy, bowing left and right, and stepping down from the rocky ledge he had used as a platform.
Now it was Stubby’s turn to tell of his experiences.
CHAPTER VIII
STUBBY RELATES HIS EXPERIENCE WITH SEALS
STUBBY looked only as big as a minute as he mounted the rock to recount his experience.
“The most thrilling and exciting adventure I had while we were in California was at the Catalina Islands, where we went to ride in the glass-bottomed rowboats they have there so people may see the bottom of the ocean and get a peek at the sea feathers, coral, flowers and fish. What one sees through the clear water is most beautiful. Little hills and hollows of the purest yellow or white sand, with long, dull pink swaying plants resembling ostrich plumes growing out of it. Next to them there may be bright yellow fan-shaped plants around the roots of which is white and pink coral exactly the shape of a man’s brains, or else in the form of sprays. And from these same mounds of glistening golden sand will bloom the delicate waxy sea anemones. Oh, it is most enchanting, and one expects to see a mermaid glide through this sea garden along with the gold, blue and silver fish that swim among these plants as our birds fly through our trees.
“Then if one wishes to row out about a mile where the water is so deep the bottom cannot be seen, they find the shoals of bluefish. That is a wonderful treat, for here they will see hundreds of young bluefish from six to twelve inches long, all facing in the same direction, apparently resting on the long-stemmed plants that grow up from the bottom of the ocean and have little yellow balloons on the stems to keep them from falling back. This is one of the feeding places of the bluefish where they stay when the tide is running out and eat the particles of sea food it washes out to them. All the fish face one way, there being tiers of fish, one on top of the other, with only a few inches between each tier as far down in the ocean as one can see.
“The queerest part of it is that they keep their fins moving in and out but do not move or swim about at all. They are as blue as the bluest sky you ever saw and they make a wonderfully beautiful picture.
“As one approaches these bluefish banks, as they are called, the reflection of their color makes the water above them turn a dark shade so the fishermen can tell by the color of the water where they are feeding.