WITH HELMET AND HOSE 77 



tion went; I was looking through a pane of glass 

 at fish swimming about — exactly what I have done 

 and seen a hundred times in our aquarium in New 

 York. I felt only as if I were in a very small, 

 strange, but perfectly comfortable room, looking 

 upon a wonderful tank of living fish with a most 

 excellently painted background. The shock of 

 entrance into this long-anticipated world had not 

 been as radical as my imagination had pictured* 

 even although I cannot recall having visualized 

 instant attacks by huge sharks, or the feel of the 

 snaky tentacle of an approaching great octopus. 

 The fact of my bodily comfort and the vivid mem- 

 ory of aquariums all over the world had deadened 

 the stupendous marvel of it all. 



I sat down on a convenient rock, shut my eyes, 

 and recited my lesson : / am not at home, nor near 

 any city or people; I am far out in the Pacific on 

 a desert island, sitting on the bottom of the ocean; 

 I am deep down under the water in a place where 

 no human being ha^ ever been before; it is one of 

 the greatest ^moments of my whole life; thousands 

 of people would pay large sums, would forego 

 much for five minutes of this! 



This was enough. I opened my eyes and saw, 

 resting on a rock not more than three inches away 

 from my face, the red bull of Kim. It was the 

 strangest little blenny in the world, five inches long 

 and mostly all head, with tail enough only to 

 steady him in his place on the boulder. His long 

 snout with nostrils flaring at the tip, his broad, 

 flat crown surmounted by two curving horns, 



