BENEATH TROPIC SEAS 



I walked into the ooze at the edge of the lagoon 

 and out into the center. There I found half a foot 

 of mud and about eighteen inches of water. This 

 was green and muddy but not slimy. It was 

 impregnated with sulphur and the odor of this 

 element rose strongly from the disturbed bottom. 

 A few miles away was a constantly flowing sulphur 

 spring, used for bathing by the natives, and this 

 lagoon has apparently some connection with the 

 same source of supply. This unprepossessing 

 liquid was filled with innumerable small insects 

 which, upon examination, proved to be water- 

 boatmen (Corixidce), both adults with handsomely 

 variegated, yellow elytra, and young which looked 

 at first glance amazingly like copepods. These 

 have been identified as Trichocorixa reticulata. 



I saw no signs of fish and was about to return 

 to shore when Dr. Jamieson who was with me, 

 protested that he saw a fish jump. Then some- 

 thing, distinctly not a water-boatman, nipped 

 our ankles. This happened again, and I called for 

 the seine. We had hardly commenced to draw 

 it when small fish began leaping high to escape it. 

 Closing the net we examined our catch on the 

 shore and I found thirty -six tarpon, Tarpon 

 atlanticus, ranging from two to eight inches. 

 When I recovered from my first astonishment at 

 seeing these clean-scaled, virile fish living in this 

 sulphurous, stagnant pool, I examined the smallest 

 for any hint of the leptocephalus stage through 

 which it is assumed they must pass early in life. 



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