58 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



great boulder. A large female was once found 

 in such a place, coiled about a score of young, each 

 of which was two feet in length. We caught two 

 more snakes in the Current Rip, and saw a number 

 of others which dived at our approach. Without 

 exception all we caught or saw were parasitized by 

 the barnacles, one having twenty-seven clumps. 

 These were all of one species, stalked, the shell 

 being a delicate maroon with two Y-shaped white 

 markings ( C oncJioderma virgatum ) . When I had 

 several snakes for comparison I saw that the tail 

 pattern is not only wholly individual, differing in 

 each snake, but the pattern varies on the two sides 

 of the tail in the same individual reptile. 



I started a trawl with several metre nets at 

 various depths, and leaving directions for the 

 Arcturus to revolve in a five-mile circle, I went 

 overboard with John Tee-Van in a small boat and 

 for several hours we rowed about in this astonish- 

 ing longitudinal maelstrom. I cannot recall having 

 ever seen so many living creatures in so limited 

 an area in all my life. In the distance dolphins 

 still splashed and sighed, boobies whistled by and 

 dived like plummets, gulls and frigatebirds picked 

 up bits of their choice with graceful, delicacy, now 

 and then a turtle drifted past, or dived and 

 watched us from beneath our keel. 



Sharks occasionally swam by, and twice, by in- 

 tention or accident, one bumped into our skiff. 

 Later in the afternoon when Dr. Gregory was out, 

 a big shark followed his boat persistently, circling 

 often, and repeatedly bumped so hard against the 



