[Illustration: A Double Natural Arch, Santa Cruz, Cal.]
Illustration No. 6 shows three such under-hewn arches. The long
projection of rock is so curved as to prevent the arches being fully
seen in any one view. I have waded and swam through these rocky
vistas, and there, where any more than moderate waves would have
mangled me against the tusks of the cruel rocks, I have found little
specimens of aquatic life by the millions, clinging fast to the rocks
that were home to them and protecting themselves by taking lime out of
the water and building such a solid wall of shell that no fierceness of
the wildest storm could work them harm. All these seek their food from
Him who feeds all life, and he heaves the ocean up to their mouths that
they may drink.
[Illustration: A Triple Natural Arch, Santa Cruz, Cal.]
No. 7 shows what has been a quadruple arch, only one part of which is
still standing. Out in the sea, lonely and by itself, appears a pier,
scarcely emergent from the waves, which once supported an arch parallel
to the one now standing and also one at right angles to the shore. The
one now standing makes the fourth. But the ever-working sea carves and
carries away arch and shore alike. At some points a careful and even
admiring observer sees little change for years, but the remorseless
tooth gnaws on unceasingly.
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