WHERE CURRENTS RIP 49 



At first glance they appeared black, but on close 

 examination showed a glory of scarlet spots all 

 over the head and pectorals, and maroon and sage 

 broken bands on the body, with the median fins 

 varigated yellow and red. Over the eyes were two 

 long, lemon filaments, and a blood-colored Y-fila- 

 ment at the nostrils. They looked intelligently 

 about with their pop eyes, and lived through vicis- 

 situdes which destroyed, all other fish. 



Crabs in multitudes crej)t about or were picked 

 out of crevices and water-worn cracks. Some were 

 pale olive-gray, irregularly mottled with maroon, 

 looking like bright-colored conglomerate rocks. 

 On the legs were sea-green swimming fringes. 

 The ivory-white under parts never showed, as the 

 crabs always scurried about with bodies held close 

 to their pelagic island. Some of the forward-bent 

 abdomens were cupped about a large mass of 

 chocolate spawn. Other species of crabs were 

 deep, Dutch porcelain blue, and one dark chocolate 

 one had a big transverse rectangle of white like 

 the sargassum crabs. 



The log reminded me of a large piece of fossil 

 rock, such as I used painstakingly to hammer out 

 of New Jersey quarries. Wherever a knot had 

 rotted away, or a teredo worm had gnawed out a 

 tunnel, the interstice or crevice was filled up by 

 an animal which fitted as if it had been poured 

 in, a kind of living fossil embedded in the dead 

 wood. Especially was this true of enormous 

 worms countersunk in every possible crack. These 

 were seven and eight inches in length, with nu- 



