HAITIAN CONTRASTS AND BEGINNINGS 



whole island. From this moment the sky is 

 ablaze with starlight such as only the tropics know 

 — Polaris low in the north and the Southern Cross 

 lying quite on its side and just clearing the top of 

 the mountains, half a mile above the bay. The 

 minor constellation of Port-au-Prince emerges 

 at dusk — a long row of scattered, twinkling lights 

 along the distant shore. 



Such is our new home in the tropics, isolated 

 from all the troubles of life on shore, with never a 

 mosquito from the marshes half a mile away, with 

 no possibility of rain except an occasional shower 

 at night, no storms to worry about, and a gentle 

 current which carries past the gangway a most 

 astonishing world of life. Long before I did any 

 serious diving, I spent hours and days in careful 

 reconnaissance. From five hundred feet in the air 

 I spotted an atoll-like reef in the center of the bay 

 with a ring of mighty coral and sea-fans deepening 

 gradually into invisibility, and at one side I caught 

 sight of six sharks milling slowly about something. 



This place is Sand Cay, three miles straight out 

 from the schooner and this I proposed to explore. 

 One day I chugged out and through a water bucket 

 verified the luxuriance of submarine growths. I 

 observed only one incident but this was unforget- 

 table. Three tall, round, hollow sponges stood 

 close together like weird parodies of factory 

 chimneys, but instead of ugly bricks they were 

 fashioned of soft, velvety olive with orange mouths. 

 As I looked, a flock of small, slim fish darted past 



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