March 25 Summary and Analysis

At mid-day, the Western Flyer arrives at Puerto Escondido, a beautiful mangrove-ringed lagoon with an interior channel to the town. The channel is shallow enough that the captain decides to anchor outside of it. The group does some fishing and collecting of specimens, and has a particularly difficult time handling a sea-cucumber with a habit of expelling its insides when taken out of water. A ten-foot manta ray frightens Tiny as he is rowing around in the skiff by swimming quickly and directly under his boat, which the ray could have flipped with its wings. Some coastal Indians come up in a canoe selling sea-scallops, clams, pearl oysters, and conchs. Steinbeck comments on how if a species is edible or dangerous, all the locals know where to find it, but other species might as well be invisible.

A rowboat arrives with...