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Luck was on the Ferry with us, and we met a couple from La Paz who turned out to be the son and daughter-in-law of a man with
whom Billee and her husband had made the long and difficult drive the length of Baja California years ago. Doors began
opening. They knew the roads, and said our car could not negotiate them. They also told us La Ventana or Sargente would be
the most practical place to leave the mainland from and that a boat would be available there. They arranged transportation to
Sargente immediately after lunch at their home, and just before sundown we landed on our island with Sr. Victor Caldron, his
son, and their outboard motor boat to remain with us during our stay.
By the time we had set up camp and had dinner it was dark, and immediately afterward we were combing the beach by lantern
light. What a thrill to find a number of dead Cypraea isabellamexicana, many C. albuginosa, and even one dead and broken
Cassis vibex mexicana. We could hardly wait for daylight and were up at dawn the next morning and each of the five mornings
we were on the island. A little after noon the wind began whipping up whitecaps on the channel and continued except for brief
periods, during our entire stay on the island.
The water was much colder than we anticipated, shortening our diving periods even with rubber suits, and the wind made our
return to normal temperature slow. Though we were cold much of the time and ate little food that escaped having at least some
sand blown in, I feel certain if we had found even one Cypraea isabellamexicana among us we would not have been aware the
wind was blowing. But from the intertidal zone to a depth of 30 or 35 feet we turned over rocks (and turned them back),
searched living coral, reefs and ledges but found not one live Cypraea isabellamexicana. We found no dead coral heads as
coral is scarce in that area. We poked every sea slug and soft creature even though we knew what it was, and with a hook
[hookah] and compressor we could be thorough and leisurely about it.
We could not have left the island earlier if we had wanted to, and a small yacht was riding out the windstorm in "our" little
bay. We finally left in a dawn lull though the wind came up again shortly after we reached the mainland as our boatman said
it would.
First Gray's Beach. For the past several months I have been saving the data on Gray's Beach for inclusion in the shelling
areas on Oahu's north shore. In researching the area I could find no Gray's Beach. Cliff Weaver set me straight. Gray's Beach
is a part of Waikiki extending from just in front of the Halekulani Hotel towards Fort DeRussy. This area was, when known as
Gray's Beach, one of the best collecting areas on all Oahu. In addition to the shells previously reported for the areas
off-shore from Waikiki, the following Cypraea have been found in the relatively shallow waters of Gray's Beach: C. carneola,
granulata, lynx, semiplota, sulcidentata, talpa, teres, tessellata, and vitellus: a very impressive list of shells. Most of
these shells are still found in the deeper water off-shore and in recent months several have been found by shallow water
collectors.
The second omission was the existence of a fossil bed in the Kahuku Point area. Professor Ostergaard, in his pamphlet "Fossil
Marine Mollusks of Oahu" (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin No. 51), reported a fossil shell area from near the radio station
inland for about 1-1/2 miles to the "precipitous walls of a limestone bluff 100 feet high, evidently a former shore line."
Ostergaard found fossil specimens of Cymatium pileare, Cypraea caputserpentis, Turbo intercostalis, and Septifers kraussii in
this fossil bed. Conus tulipa has also been reported in fossil form from Kahuku. By the way, Bulletin 51 is still in print
and can be obtained from the Bishop Museum.
So much for the "left out" department.
The area discussed this month is definitely a lee shore during the trade wind season. Our average trade winds of fifteen to
eighteen miles per hour will cause little trouble with waves or surf. However, intensified trades of up to 35 miles per hour
can cause hazardous conditions to develop, even inside the fringing reef. Occasionally huge ocean swells are encountered on
the north shore, even with little or no wind. These are usually the result of mid-ocean storms.
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