THE SHARKS OF NARBOROUGH 173 



groupers are, both two years ago and during the 

 present trip, it is only these gorgeously colored indi- 

 viduals which attack the propeller of our little out- 

 board motors. Whether the color of the ghstening 

 brass attracts this shining caste more than it does 

 the other, duller grouper persons, I have no idea. 



A few minutes later a shadowy school, a second 

 lot, of even larger groupers swept past in the blue 

 distance with another golden brother with them. 

 He is all the more wonderful because there are no 

 intermediates — one has either regal golden blood 

 or mottled brown polloi caste. Here is materiaHzed 

 the mental effect which creates in fairy tales the 

 one most beautiful creatm-e or hero or princess 

 among a host of dull or ugly ones. 



Once again a huge sea-lion gave me a start. As I 

 stood watching a mist of grazing Xesurus I felt a 

 sudden water pressure against my back and legs, 

 and turned in time to see a monstrous black shape 

 bank and veer away, having rushed down in a light- 

 ning sweep within a foot of me. His eyes were no 

 longer the dull, soft, deer-like, half-seeing organs 

 with which he gazed at me on land, but bright and 

 clear and keen; the long cheek whiskers stood out 

 white and bristling, the mouth partly opened as he 

 turned and the dog teeth gleamed wickedly. As my 

 eye caught his form I leaped involuntarily toward 

 the ladder, forgetting that I was in a land where 

 mighty acrobatics could be achieved with a mere 

 push. I landed on a boulder at a height of about 

 four rungs up, and some eight feet beyond the lad- 

 der — a standing high and distance jump which 



