CORAL JUNGLES OF SEA-COW REEF 



that glorious glint and this time cupped it in 

 both hands. 



It was too thick to try for more fish and I was 

 gasping myself like a fish on land, so I gave up 

 and started back, suddenly to be jerked almost off 

 my feet by the unexpected tautening of the hose. 

 This might mean danger, so I climbed the highest 

 crag in sight and saw that I had become completely 

 confused in the limey fog, and, headed straight 

 out to the open sea, had abruptly reached the end 

 of my tether. 



An hour later I returned to the scene of desola- 

 tion, and found shambles of coral, all covered 

 thickly with gray dust. As I clambered over the 

 wreckage, extracting a fish here and there, I 

 suddenly realized an unexpected limitation of the 

 explosive — not a single worm was injured. Fish 

 succumbed, but even close to the heart of the 

 damage, great blooms of beauty raised their heads 

 at all sorts of unexpected angles from the debris. 

 They probably found good feeding in the coral 

 dust. One great piece of coral weighing hundreds 

 of pounds had been blown over on its side, and 

 apparently from beneath the mass itself several 

 feathery, mauve and white heads protruded. 

 What poppies in Flanders took months to do, 

 hundreds of these worm blossoms had accomplished 

 in an hour. 



In the course of our dynamiting, we obtained 

 some very interesting results. On the fourth of 

 May I let off two sticks at Sea-cow Reef and got 



151 



