BENEATH TROPIC SEAS 



watched the scene shift and change. Two sharks 

 looked in from opposite sides, and a third followed 

 my trail from the boat. 



With the first were three barracudas, passing 

 quietly, with the supercilious expression which 

 their projecting under lips always give. Finally 

 a procession of two hundred and six blue surgeons 

 made a circuit of the whole arena, examining the 

 coral walls several feet up, and most vividly recall- 

 ing to my mind the waters of Galapagos. One 

 of the barracudas was wholly eclipsed by a dense 

 mass of jellyfish which passed in front of his sus- 

 pended form. As I made my way out, I saw my 

 old friend the six-foot tarpon just turning past the 

 anchor rope. He had two scales missing from 

 beneath the mid-side, and this was the ninth time 

 I had seen him. He was apparently the only one 

 of his kind at this reef, and, as I have already said, 

 time after time when I dived, he would swim over, 

 and pass slowly within ten feet. 



It was a worthy farewell to Lamentin Reef, 

 and the last look I took around before I ascended, 

 fixed in my mind a seascape, most noble, most 

 beautiful, and filled with unsolved problems of 

 such compelling interest that my life overhead 

 threatened in comparison to be drab and un- 

 eventful. 



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