Jewel by the Sea

"And God said, Let the waters under the Heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.  And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas: and God saw that it was good." - Genesis 1: 9-10

"In the beginning there was no land or earth. There was nothing except salt water.  This covered everything like a big sea.  Two brothers lived under this water; the oldest was Teaipakomat.  Both of them kept their eyes closed, for the salt would blind them.  The oldest brother, after a while, went up on top of the salt water and looked around.  He could see nothing but water.  Soon the younger brother too came up.  He opened his eyes on the way and salt water blinded him.  When he got to the top he could see nothing at all, so he went back.  When the older brother saw there was nothing, he made first of all little red ants.  They filled the water up thick with their bodies and so made land." - From the Kumeyaay Creation story.

"Over the mountains,

And over the waves,

Over the fountains,

And under the graves;

Over the floods that are deepest,

Which do Neptune obey; Over the rocks that are steepest,

Love will find out the way."  

- Thomas Percy (Bishop of Dromore)

"On the following Tuesday, the 3d of the month of October, they departed from this port of San Miguel, and on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, they held their course a matter of eighteen leagues along the coast, where they saw many valleys and plains, and many smokes, and mountains in the interior.  At nightfall they were near some islands which are some seven leagues from the mainland, but because the wind went down they could not reach them that night." - From the voyage of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542.

"We have seen Indians in immense numbers, and all those on this coast of the Pacific contrive to make a good subsistence on various seeds and by fishing." - Junipero Serra, Spanish Priest (1713-1784).

 

"Flowers were plentiful that spring because of the winter's heavy rains.  The dunes were covered with mats of sand flowers, which are red and have tiny eyes that are sometimes pink and sometimes white. Yuccas grew tall among the rocks of the ravine.  Their heads were clustered with curly gloves no longer than pebbles and the color of the sun when it rises.  Lupines grew where the springs ran.  From the sunny cliffs, in crevices where no one would think anything could grow, sprang the little red and yellow fountains of the comul bush." - From Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell.  

"This being the spring season, San Pedro, as well as all the other open ports upon the coast, was filled with whales, that had come in to make their annual visit upon soundings.  For the first few days that we were here we watched them with great interest, calling out 'There she blows!' every time we saw the spout of one breaking the surface of the water, but they soon became so common that we took little notice of them.  They often 'broke' very near us, and one thick, foggy night, during a dead calm, while I was standing anchor-watch, one of them rose so near that he struck our cable, and made all surge again.  He did not seem to like the encounter much himself, for he sheered off, and spouted at a good distance." - From Two Years Before The Mast by Richard Henry Dana, in 1835.

"We rode out to the Indians' huts.  The little children were running about the huts, stark naked, and the men were not much more; but the women had generally coarse gowns of a sort of tow cloth.  The men are employed, most of the time, in tending the cattle of the Mission, and in working in the garden, which is a very large one, including several acres, and filled, it is said, with the best fruits of the climate.  The language of these people, which is spoken by all the Indians of California, is the most brutish, without any exception, that I ever heard, or that could well be conceived of.  It is a complete slabber.  The words fall off of the ends of their tongues, and a continual slabbering sound is made in the cheeks, outside of the teeth." - From Two Years Before The Mast by Richard Henry Dana, in 1835.

"The country seems to be alive with cattle, horses, mules and jackasses.  Passing the San Luis Rey Mission we turned left and marched up a mountain, from the top we could see the ocean, we judged it to be about 5 miles away.  This was the first time I ever saw the ocean and it was the case of many of my comrades, all felt to rejoice to know we were so near the end of our journey.  In the evening we camped in a little valley near the seashore.  We could hear the roaring and dashing of waves all night.

"The whole face of the country is alive with cattle, bands of horses, mules and donkeys.  One of the guides said he knew one man who owns twelve thousand head of cattle.

"The earth is carpeted with green grass and wild oats and any amount of wild mustard and white clover.  I see some mustard stalks high as ten or twelve feet and six or eight inches thick." - From the journal of Henry W. Bigler, member of the Mormon Battalion, on January 27, 1847.

" . . . several very heavy gusts of wind came driving madly along, completely filling the whole atmosphere with thick and impenetrable clouds of dust and sand, so much so, that one who was in the street could no more see around him than if he was surrounded by an Egyptian darkness; this continued for a considerable length of time, the violence of the wind still increasing, until about one o'clock, when it came along in a perfect hurricane, tearing down houses and everything that was in its way." - From the Daily Alta California on the October 2, 1858 hurricane.

"For how many thousands of years did it lie alone? How long did the great gray waves batter at its granite shore, its sandy beaches, its clay cliffs? How long did it wait for men to come with their dreams, their ships?"- From Frontier by Louis L'Amour.

 

“The aisle of autumn sunlight settling on 

The mobile corrugations of the sea 

Fragments and forms at once, is here and gone, 

A durable, elusive energy: 

Pure presence and repose—mere lovely being, 

To feel which is as natural as seeing 

The dog that dashes up the beach and back 

Or, to a pair of onlookers' applause, 

Goes skidding to a posture of attack 

And leaps to snatch a Frisbee in his jaws.” - Poem by Timothy Steele.

“The wind dies, and the cloud Alps disappear, 

And where the sun now sets, the sky's so swirled 

With smokey colors that the atmosphere 

Seems like the abstract beauty of the world. 

The swells more regular, there floats at rest 

A pelican, long beak tucked to its chest.” - Poem by Timothy Steele.

"The sea lions felt it and their barking took on a tone and a cadence that would have gladdened the heart of St. Francis." — John Steinbeck

"All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, woods or plains, on the sea or land or down among the crystals of waves or high in a balloon in the sky; through all the climates, hot or cold, storms and calms, everywhere and always we are in God's eternal beauty and love. So universally true is this, the spot where we chance to be always seems the best." - John Muir

"Took my chances on a big jet-plane
Never let 'em tell ya that they're aw-ooh-all the same
Hoh, the sea was red and the sky was grey
I wonder how tomorrow could ever follow today-hee
Mountains and the canyons start to tremble and shake
The children of the sun begin to awake." - From Going to California by Led Zeppelin.

 

“Flashing between curved sea plants in the sand 

There darts a shining company of fish. 

Swirling through the sea's green depths they go, 

Gleaming like silver ripples in a pool 

That dance and sparkle in the moon's cold light. 

Then they are gone, as quickly as they came, 

And the wildly waving seaweeds move 

More slowly and at last are still once more. 

Now through the silent forests of the sea 

There slowly drifts in shimmering radiance 

A lustrous jellyfish. Suddenly, 

From pale pink opalescence swiftly changed, 

It turns translucent and is almost gone, 

Only to gleam once more, far off, against 

Black rocks where shadowy forms move hazily. 

There at last it melts into the distance— 

Ghostlike, drifting slowly out of sight.” - Poem by Everett Ruess.