whole
"school" of whales and a flight of flying-fishes. Yes, really and
truly, these little fish fly or sail through the air, for their fins
balance them like a parachute. They skim along ten or twelve feet
above the waves, and then drop in the water to rest, taking another
flight whenever their enemies, the porpoises, chase them.

How happy the children were to land at the little town of Avalon, and
to know that they were to have a month at this beautiful place! They
hurried down to the beach and their first choice of amusements was the
glass-bottomed boat. These boats have "water-telescopes," which are
only clear glass set in boxed-in places. The glass seems to make the
ripples still, so that you can look down, down to the bottom of the
ocean, twenty or thirty feet below you.

The boatman rowed the children out in the bay, where the water, now
green, now blue, was always clear as crystal. On the rocks and sand
at the bottom starfish and crabs crawled slowly along or clung to some
stone. The purple sea-urchins, queer round-shelled creatures covered
with thorny spines, crowded together, and the ugly toad-fish hid
in the green and brown seaweeds. Blue, purple, and rainbow-colored
jellyfish floated on top of the waters, while gold perch with red
and green sunfish swam through the seaweed "like parrots in some hot
country's woods," Retta thought. In the shallow places on the rocks
those curious sea-flowers, the anemones, looked like pink or green
cactus blossoms. The children never tired of the water-telescope in
all their stay at the island.

At night the warm ocean waters seemed on fire, since they are full
of very tiny, soft-bodied creatures, each of which gives out a faint,
glowing light. Every day the fishermen brought in new and strange
fishes. The black sea-bass, heavier than the fisherman himself and
longer than he was tall, were wonderful, and they could hardly believe
that such big fish were caught with a rod and line.

But the leaping tuna pleased Tom the most, since he thought it such
fun to watch them jump into the air like silver arrows after the
flying-fish. Not so large as the black bass, the tunas are strong
enough to tow a boat along when running with a hook. One will drag a
heavy launch through the water as if a tug had hold of it, and
will fight for hours, rushing and plunging till tired out. Then the
fisherman pulls him up to the boat and ends his struggles.

Tom and Retta were fond of watching