the curious fish and sea-plants
in the glass aquarium tanks on shore also, but their happiest time was
when they gathered shells on the beach. They never found out the names
of more than those of the limpet, turban, and scallop, though they
picked up baskets full of tiny pink and white beauties, all frail and
of many kinds. These shells were once the homes of sea mollusks,
as such soft, fleshy creatures are called. But to Tom and Retta the
shells were only pretty playthings, to be doll's dishes, or cups, or
pincushions, perhaps.

One morning some fishermen saw a shark, and no one dared to go in
bathing for a few days. This great, savage, "man-eater" shark does not
often come north of the Gulf of California. Sometimes small ones are
caught with a hook and line off Catalina Island, and Tom was always
glad to see such sea-tigers destroyed.

Of course the children did not want to go home, till at last Mrs.
Ransom explained to them that in the ocean and bay near San Francisco
there were odd fish and strange animals too. And so it turned out, for
in a day's fishing over at Sausalito Tom caught many silver smelt and
tomcod, with flat, ugly flounders, and a red, big-eyed rock-cod. The
frightened boy almost fell out of the boat, too, when he pulled in a
large sting-ray, or "stingaree," as the boatman called it. This queer
three-sided fish, with a sharp, bony sting in its back, flopped round
till the man cut the hook out, knocked its head till it was no longer
able to bite, and threw it overboard. These rays have to be fenced out
of the oyster-beds along the bay, since they have big mouths full
of such strong teeth that they crush an oyster, shell and all, and
destroy every one they can reach.

Oysters are grown in great quantities in the oyster-beds along the bay
shore. The largest size, which are called "transplanted," are brought
from the East as very small or baby oysters and dropped into shallow
water, where they cling to rocks or brush-piles till grown.

Tom also caught a perch, and clinging to it as he drew in his line
was a large, hard-shelled, long-clawed crab. Tom put the crab in the
basket, knowing well what delicious white meat was in the fellow's
legs and back.

Clams that burrow deep in the mud and may be found at low tide,
by digging where their tell-tale bubble of air arises, and the odd
shrimps, so good to eat, the children already knew about. Chinese
fishermen catch shrimps in nets, dry them on the hillsid