WITH HELMET AND HOSE 87 



crevice of the rock, where the crab was only partly 

 exposed. The fact of the invisibility of the food 

 made little difference in the swiftness and the num- 

 bers of the arrivals. Their keen powers of scent 

 drew them like filings to a magnet, and although 

 only three or four fish could find room for a simul- 

 taneous nibble, yet scores waited behind, or pushed 

 and wedged themselves in, reminding me of the 

 buffet at a supper dance. 



At last I decided to try my new weapon. On 

 several former descents I had noticed a very com- 

 mon fish which was new to me, and now there were 

 twenty or thirty in sight, nibbling at the crab, 

 swimming in and out of crevices, and doing all the 

 things which are imperative for small fish to do on 

 occasions such as this. They were smug little fel- 

 lows, high-backed like sunfish, brownish-black, 

 with only two outstanding features, — delicately 

 beautiful bright orange tips to the pectoral fins 

 and a white base to the tail. Twice I leveled my 

 trident and stabbed, and twice I missed. Then I 

 found a new point of balance along the handle, 

 struck again, and had a fish caught fast — ^my first 

 Pomacentrus leucurus (Fig. 21). 



And now my under-sea sprang a new surprise 

 on me. Although I am a scientist and a hunting 

 scientist, I hate to take life. Under the provoca- 

 tion of extreme danger to me or mine, I have al- 

 ways valued human life at less than nothing, but 

 shooting down a savage as he is rushing you is one 

 thing and deliberately spearing a fish which you 

 have been watching and which swims about close to 



