The Log from the Sea of Cortez (26 page)
Read The Log from the Sea of Cortez Online
Authors: John Steinbeck,Richard Astro
The Puerto Escondido station was one of the richest we visited, for it combined many kinds of environment in a very small area; sand bottom, stone shore, boulders, broken rock, coral, still, warm, shallow places, and racing tide. It is highly probable that careful and extended collecting would show that individuals of species of a very respectable proportion of the total Panamic fauna could be found in this tiny world. Barring surf-battered reef, every probable environment occurs within these few acres—a textbook exhibit for ecologists.
We took rock isopods, sponges, tunicates, turbellarians, chitons, bivalves, snails, hermit crabs, and many other crabs, Heteronereids and mysids pelagic at night, small ophiurans, limpets, and worms and even listed in our collecting notes for the day the horsehair worms from the little waterfall in the mountains.
46
We took six to eight species of cucumbers and eleven of starfish at this one station.
46
We took six to eight species of cucumbers and eleven of starfish at this one station.
When we came back from the early morning collecting we sailed immediately for the port of Loreto. We were eager to see this town, for it was the first successful settlement on the Peninsula, and its church is the oldest mission of all. Here the inhospitability of Lower California had finally been conquered and a colony had taken root in the face of hunger and mishap. From the sea, the town was buried in a grove of palms and greenery. We dropped anchor and searched the shore with our glasses. A line of canoes lay on the beach and a group of men sat on the sand by the canoes and watched us; comfortable, lazy-looking men in white clothes. When our anchor dropped they got up and made for the town. Of course, they had to find their uniforms, and since Loreto was not very often visited and since the Governor had
not
recently been there, this may not have been so easy. There may have been some scurrying of errand-bound children from house to house, looking for tunics or belts or borrowing clean shirts. Señor the official had to shave and scent himself and dress. It all takes time, and the boat in the harbor will wait. It didn’t look like much of a boat anyway, but at least it was a boat.
not
recently been there, this may not have been so easy. There may have been some scurrying of errand-bound children from house to house, looking for tunics or belts or borrowing clean shirts. Señor the official had to shave and scent himself and dress. It all takes time, and the boat in the harbor will wait. It didn’t look like much of a boat anyway, but at least it was a boat.
One fine thing about Mexican officials is that they greet a fishing boat with the same serious ceremony they would afford the
Queen Mary,
and the
Queen Mary
would have to wait just as long. This made us feel very good and not rebellious about the port fees—absent in this case! We came to them and they made us feel, not like stodgy people in a purse-seiner but like ambassadors from Ultra-Marina bringing letters of greeting out of the distances. It is no wonder that we too scurried for clean shirts, that Tony put on his master’s cap, and Tiny polished the naval insignia on his, which he had come by no doubt honorably in a washroom in San Diego. We were not smart, not very alert, but we were clean and we smelled rather delicious. Sparky sprinkled us with shaving lotion and we filled the air with an odor of flowers. If the
brazo,
the double embrace, should be indicated by any feeling of uncontrollable good-will, we were ready.
Queen Mary,
and the
Queen Mary
would have to wait just as long. This made us feel very good and not rebellious about the port fees—absent in this case! We came to them and they made us feel, not like stodgy people in a purse-seiner but like ambassadors from Ultra-Marina bringing letters of greeting out of the distances. It is no wonder that we too scurried for clean shirts, that Tony put on his master’s cap, and Tiny polished the naval insignia on his, which he had come by no doubt honorably in a washroom in San Diego. We were not smart, not very alert, but we were clean and we smelled rather delicious. Sparky sprinkled us with shaving lotion and we filled the air with an odor of flowers. If the
brazo,
the double embrace, should be indicated by any feeling of uncontrollable good-will, we were ready.
The men came back to the beach in their uniforms, paddled out, and we passed the ceremony of induction. Loreto was asleep in the sunshine, a lovely town, with gardens in every yard and only the streets white and hot. The young males watched us from the safe shade of the
cantina
and passed greetings as we went by, and a covey of young girls grew tight-faced and rushed around a corner and giggled. How strange we were in Loreto! Our trousers were dark, not white; the silly caps we wore were so outlandish that no store in Loreto would think of stocking them. We were neither soldiers nor sailors—the little girls just couldn’t take it. We could hear their strangled giggling from around the corner. Now and then they peeked back around the corner to verify for themselves our ridiculousness, and then giggled again while their elders hissed in disapproval. And one woman standing in a lovely garden shaded with purple bougainvillaea explained, “Everyone knows what silly things girls are. You must forgive their ill manners; they will be ashamed later on.” But we felt that the silly girls had something worthwhile in their attitude. They were definitely amused. It is often so, particularly in our country, that the first reaction to strangeness is fear and hatred; we much preferred the laughter. We don’t think it was even unkind—they’d simply never seen anything so funny in their lives.
cantina
and passed greetings as we went by, and a covey of young girls grew tight-faced and rushed around a corner and giggled. How strange we were in Loreto! Our trousers were dark, not white; the silly caps we wore were so outlandish that no store in Loreto would think of stocking them. We were neither soldiers nor sailors—the little girls just couldn’t take it. We could hear their strangled giggling from around the corner. Now and then they peeked back around the corner to verify for themselves our ridiculousness, and then giggled again while their elders hissed in disapproval. And one woman standing in a lovely garden shaded with purple bougainvillaea explained, “Everyone knows what silly things girls are. You must forgive their ill manners; they will be ashamed later on.” But we felt that the silly girls had something worthwhile in their attitude. They were definitely amused. It is often so, particularly in our country, that the first reaction to strangeness is fear and hatred; we much preferred the laughter. We don’t think it was even unkind—they’d simply never seen anything so funny in their lives.
As usual, a good serious small boy attached himself to us. It would be interesting to see whether a nation governed by the small boys of Mexico would not be a better, happier nation than those ruled by old men whose prejudices may or may not be conditioned by ulcerous stomachs and perhaps a little drying up of the stream of love.
This small boy could have been an ambassador to almost any country in the world. His straight-seeing dark eyes were courteous, yet firm. He was kind and dignified. He told us something of Loreto; of its poverty, and how its church was tumbled down now; and he walked with us to the destroyed mission. The roof had fallen in and the main body of the church was a mass of rubble. From the walls hung the shreds of old paintings. But the bell-tower was intact, and we wormed our way deviously up to look at the old bells and to strike them softly with the palms of our hands so that they glowed a little with tone. From here we could look down on the low roofs and into the enclosed gardens of the town. The white sunlight could not get into the gardens and a sleepy shade lay in them.
One small chapel was intact in the church, but the door to it was barred by a wooden grille, and we had to peer through into the small, dark, cool room. There were paintings on the walls, one of which we wanted badly to see more closely, for it looked very much like an El Greco, and probably was
not
painted by El Greco. Still, strange things have found their way here. The bells on the tower were the special present of the Spanish throne to this very loyal city. But it would be good to see this picture more closely. The Virgin Herself, Our Lady of Loreto, was in a glass case and surrounded by the lilies of the recently past Easter. In the dim light of the chapel she seemed very lovely. Perhaps she is gaudy; she has not the look of smug virginity so many have—the “I-am-the-Mother-of-Christ” look—but rather there was a look of terror in her face, of the Virgin Mother of the world and the prayers of so very many people heavy on her.
not
painted by El Greco. Still, strange things have found their way here. The bells on the tower were the special present of the Spanish throne to this very loyal city. But it would be good to see this picture more closely. The Virgin Herself, Our Lady of Loreto, was in a glass case and surrounded by the lilies of the recently past Easter. In the dim light of the chapel she seemed very lovely. Perhaps she is gaudy; she has not the look of smug virginity so many have—the “I-am-the-Mother-of-Christ” look—but rather there was a look of terror in her face, of the Virgin Mother of the world and the prayers of so very many people heavy on her.
To the people of Loreto, and particularly to the Indians of the outland, she must be the loveliest thing in the world. It doesn’t matter that our eyes, critical and thin with good taste, should find her gaudy. And actually we did not. We too found her lovely in her dim chapel with the lilies of Easter around her. This is a very holy place, and to question it is to question a fact as established as the tide. How easily and quickly we slide into our race-pattern unless we keep intact the stiff-necked and blinded pattern of the recent intellectual training.
We threw it over, and there wasn’t much to throw over, and we felt good about it. This Lady, of plaster and wood and paint, is one of the strong ecological factors of the town of Loreto, and not to know her and her strength is to fail to know Loreto. One could not ignore a granite monolith in the path of the waves. Such a rock, breaking the rushing waters, would have an effect on animal distribution radiating in circles like a dropped stone in a pool. So has this plaster Lady a powerful effect on the deep black water of the human spirit. She may disappear and her name be lost, as the Magna Mater, as Isis, have disappeared. But something very like her will take her place, and the longings which created her will find somewhere in the world a similar altar on which to pour their force. No matter what her name is, Artemis, or Venus, or a girl behind a Woolworth counter vaguely remembered, she is as eternal as our species, and we will continue to manufacture her as long as we survive.
We came back slowly through the deserted streets of Loreto, and we walked quietly laden with submergence in a dim chapel.
A few supplies went aboard, and we pulled up the anchor and moved northward again. On the way we caught a Mexican sierra and another fish, apparently a cross between a yellow-fin tuna
47
and an albacore.
48
Tiny and Sparky, who have fished in tuna water a good deal, say that this cross is often found and taken, although never in numbers.
47
and an albacore.
48
Tiny and Sparky, who have fished in tuna water a good deal, say that this cross is often found and taken, although never in numbers.
We sailed north and found anchorage on the northern end of Coronado Island, and went immediately to collect on a long, westerly-extending point. This reef of water-covered stones was not very rich. In high boots we moved slowly about, turning over the flattened algae-covered boulders. We found here many solitary corals,
49
and with great difficulty took some of them. They are very hard, and shatter easily when they are removed. If one could saw out the small section of rock to which they are fastened, it would be easy to take them. The next best method is to use a thin, very sharp knife and, by treating them as delicately as jewels, to remove them from their hard anchorage. Even with care, only about one in five is unbroken. Here also we found clustered heads of hard zoanthidean anemones of two types, one much larger than the other. We found a great number of large hemispherical yellow sponges which were noted in the collecting reports as “strikingly similar to the Monterey Bay
Tethya aurantia
or
Geodia”—a
similarity partly explainable by the fact that they turned out to be
Tethya aurantia
and a species of
Geodia!
Our collecting included the usual assortment of creatures, ranging from the crabs which plant algae on their backs for protection to the bryozoa which look more like moss than animals. With all these, the region was still not rich, but “burned,” and again we felt the thing which had been at the strange Cayo Islet, a resentment of the shore toward animal life, an inhospitable quality in the stones that would make an animal think twice about living there.
49
and with great difficulty took some of them. They are very hard, and shatter easily when they are removed. If one could saw out the small section of rock to which they are fastened, it would be easy to take them. The next best method is to use a thin, very sharp knife and, by treating them as delicately as jewels, to remove them from their hard anchorage. Even with care, only about one in five is unbroken. Here also we found clustered heads of hard zoanthidean anemones of two types, one much larger than the other. We found a great number of large hemispherical yellow sponges which were noted in the collecting reports as “strikingly similar to the Monterey Bay
Tethya aurantia
or
Geodia”—a
similarity partly explainable by the fact that they turned out to be
Tethya aurantia
and a species of
Geodia!
Our collecting included the usual assortment of creatures, ranging from the crabs which plant algae on their backs for protection to the bryozoa which look more like moss than animals. With all these, the region was still not rich, but “burned,” and again we felt the thing which had been at the strange Cayo Islet, a resentment of the shore toward animal life, an inhospitable quality in the stones that would make an animal think twice about living there.
It is so strange, this burned quality. We have seen places which seemed hostile to human life, too. There are parts of the coast of California which do not like humans. It is as though they were already inhabited by another and invisible species which resented humans. Perhaps such places are “burned” for us; perhaps a petrologist could say why. Might there not be a mild radio-activity which made one nervous in such a place so that he would say, trying to put words to his feeling, “This place is unfriendly. There is something here that will not tolerate my kind”? While some radio-activities have been shown to encourage not only life but mutation (note experimentation with fruit-flies), there might well be some other combinations which have an opposite effect.
Little fragments of seemingly unrelated information will sometimes accumulate in a process of speculation until a tenable hypothesis emerges. We had come on a riddle in our reading about the Gulf and now we were able to see this riddle in terms of the animals. There is an observable geographic differential in the fauna of the Gulf of California. The Cape San Lucas-La Paz area is strongly Panamic. Many warm-water mollusks and crustaceans are not known to occur in numbers north of La Paz, and some not even north of Cape San Lucas. But the region north of Santa Rosalia, and even of Puerto Escondido, is known to be inhabited by many colder-water animals, including
Pachygrapsus crassipes,
the commonest California shore crab, which ranges north as far as Oregon. These animals are apparently trapped in a blind alley with no members of their kind to the south of them.
Pachygrapsus crassipes,
the commonest California shore crab, which ranges north as far as Oregon. These animals are apparently trapped in a blind alley with no members of their kind to the south of them.
The problem is: “How did they get there?” In 1895 Cooper
50
advanced an explanation. He remarks, referring to the northern part of the Gulf: “It appears that the species found there are more largely of the temperate fauna, many of them being identical with those of the same latitude on the west [outer] coast of the Peninsula. This seems to indicate that the dividing ridge, now three thousand feet or more in altitude, was crossed by one or more channels within geologically recent times.”
50
advanced an explanation. He remarks, referring to the northern part of the Gulf: “It appears that the species found there are more largely of the temperate fauna, many of them being identical with those of the same latitude on the west [outer] coast of the Peninsula. This seems to indicate that the dividing ridge, now three thousand feet or more in altitude, was crossed by one or more channels within geologically recent times.”
This differential, which we ourselves saw, has been remarked a number of times in the literature of the region, especially by conchologists. Eric Knight Jordan, son of David Starr Jordan, an extremely promising young paleontologist who was killed some years ago, studied the geological and present distribution of mollusks along the west coast of Lower California. He says
51
: “Two distinct faunas exist on the west coast of Lower California. The southern Californian
now
ranges southward from Point Conception to Cedros Island ... probably extends a little farther.... The fauna of the Gulf of California ranges to the north on the west coast of the Peninsula approximately to Scammon’s Lagoon, which is a little farther up than Cedros Island.” Present geographical ranges are given for 124 species, collected in lower Quaternary beds at Magdalena Bay, all of which occur living today, but farther to the north. Two pages later he remarks: “It ... appears that when these Quaternary beds were laid down there was a southward displacement of the isotherms sufficient to carry the conditions today prevailing at Cedros down as far as the latitude of Magdalena Bay.”
51
: “Two distinct faunas exist on the west coast of Lower California. The southern Californian
now
ranges southward from Point Conception to Cedros Island ... probably extends a little farther.... The fauna of the Gulf of California ranges to the north on the west coast of the Peninsula approximately to Scammon’s Lagoon, which is a little farther up than Cedros Island.” Present geographical ranges are given for 124 species, collected in lower Quaternary beds at Magdalena Bay, all of which occur living today, but farther to the north. Two pages later he remarks: “It ... appears that when these Quaternary beds were laid down there was a southward displacement of the isotherms sufficient to carry the conditions today prevailing at Cedros down as far as the latitude of Magdalena Bay.”
Having reviewed the literature, we can confirm the significance of the Cedros Island complex as a present critical horizon (as Carpenter did eighty years ago) where the north and south fauna to some extent intermingle. Apparently this is the very condition that obtained at Magdalena Bay or southward when the lower Quaternary beds were being laid down. The present Magdalena Plain, extending to La Paz on the Gulf side, was at that time submerged. Then it was cold enough to permit a commingling of cold-water and warm-water species at that point. The hypothesis is tenable that when the isotherms retreated northward, the cold-water forms were no longer able to inhabit southern Lower California shores, which included the then Gulf entrance. In these increasingly warm waters they would have perished or would have been pushed northward, both along the outside coast, where they could retreat indefinitely, and into the Gulf. In the latter case the migrating waves of competinganimals from the south, which were invading the Gulf and spilling upward, would have pocketed the northern species in the upper reaches, where they have remained to this day. These animals, hemmed in by tropical waters and fortunate competitors, have maintained themselves for thousands of years, though in the struggle they have been modified toward pauperization.
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