92 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



years ago, the blue-lined golden snapper, Evoplites 

 viridis, which I then pictured in color/ These 

 beautiful fish were abundant, and although many 

 quickly gathered when crab meat was provided, 

 yet as a rule, they were solitary, swimming about 

 singly close to the bottom. One day in one spot 

 we caught thirty-eight with hook and line as fast 

 as we could pull them in, but none of these lived, 

 while one which I harpooned thrived for many 

 weeks. Most were six- to eight-inch fish, but 

 occasionally I caught fleeting glimpses, in deep 

 water ways, of giants nearly three feet long. They 

 were voracious and when they dashed in for a snap 

 at the crab, they often seized the entire joint of a 

 leg which they swallowed whole. 



The little round, brownish-black Pomacentrus 

 fish of two species were the most abundant of the 

 four-inchers, and, as I shall relate more particu- 

 larly in another chapter, were the most absolute 

 home bodies, each living in his particular crack or 

 crevice, from which he frequently rushed out and 

 attacked ferociously any fish which approached too 

 near, regardless of its size. 



Another field of work of tremendous interest 

 was suggested when I turned over the first stone 

 and saw the mass of life covering the underside 

 and filling the crevices. I arranged to have a pail 

 lowered on a rope, and squatting low on the floor 

 of the bay I filled the pail and gave the signal to 

 draw it up. Five pailfuls provided a tub of rocks. 

 This was left standing in the sun for a day and at 



^Galdpagos: World's End, Plate V. 



