The Days of a Man ^1902 



lecting sea-cucumbers, octopuses, and sea-urchins for 

 food. The big octopus they disable by turning it 

 inside out with a dexterous jerk. 



Creeping through the interstices of the larger coral 

 masses, abounded tiny green gobies, the biggest not 

 half an inch long, and minute brick-red blennies, no 

 and bigger and just as evasive. Afele, our boy assistant, 

 his 'Cord would dive for loose coral heads; then, laying them 

 in his little boat, the Coral Queen, cracked them with a 

 hammer, disclosing multitudes of tiny fishes, one of 

 which we named Eviota afelei. 



In the seams of the reef, also, live swarms of morays 

 of many species, large and small, dislodged only by 

 the poison of chloride of lime, at a breath of which 

 they wriggle across the rocks like frightened serpents. 

 The The great moray eels Gymnothorax fiercest of 

 all fishes, have large mouths and savage, knife-like 

 teeth. Some of them reach a length of six feet and a 

 diameter of six inches. If caught in a net they will 

 often clear a boat of natives, for they come on, head 

 upreared, and strike snake-fashion with jaws like a 

 steel trap. Many of them are brilliantly colored, but 

 even more striking than their shades of yellow, brown, 

 black, or green are the fantastic designs of their 

 ornamentation. Little morays, from six inches up- 

 ward, of relatively gentle disposition, also abound in 

 the rock clefts. The least of all these was brought in 

 by Knight and so named for him Anarchias knighti. 



Many reef fishes show highly marked protective 

 coloring. Such kinds, some of which are armed with 

 stinging spines, usually lie quiescent on the bottom, 

 their general hue being a blotched or mottled gray. 

 But in all the pools occur species the gorgeous colors 

 of which seem defiant of enemies as well as of theory. 



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