The coast-line has few indentations sufficient to afford safe harbourage.
The tough but flexible coarse grey paper (German Fliesspapier), upon which on the Continent specimens are commonly fixed by gummed strips of the same, is less hygroscopic than ordinary cartridge paper, but has the disadvantage of affording harbourage in the inequalities of its surface to a minute insect, Atropos pulsatoria, which commits great havoc in damp specimens, and which, even if noticed, cannot be dislodged without difficulty.
In the 16th century it was repeatedly plundered by pirates until it came to terms with them, gave them welcome harbourage, and based a less precarious existence upon continuous illicit trade.
Elsewhere moderate re-entrants between the ranges have a continuous beach, concave seaward; such re-entrants afford imperfect harbourage for vessels; Monterey Bay is the most pronounced example of this kind.
Many hundred acres of land have been reclaimed from the sea here and along the coast of the bay; there are costly embankments and good harbourage.