186 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



and chilled without knowing it. Excitement and 

 concentrated interest keep me keyed up, and the 

 constant need of balance requires that every muscle 

 is taut, and then when I reach the surface and re- 

 lax, the chill seems to enter my very bones. For- 

 tunately there is always either rowing or pumping 

 to do and this soon warms me. 



During my last dive I had noticed five or six 

 new species of fish and hoping to hook some of the 

 smaller ones I decided to get some bait. I had the 

 boat backed near shore and at a propitious moment 

 on the crest of one of the lesser swells I leaped 

 off. The scarlet crabs here are remarkably tame, 

 far more so than on any of the other islands, a fact 

 for which I can in no way account. The casual 

 visits of man may be of course ruled out as having 

 nothing to do with it, and yet here birds and fish, 

 the crabs' most deadly enemies, are unusually 

 abundant. 



With two big, scarlet crabs I vaulted back on the 

 crest of another convenient little swell, fortunately 

 just avoiding the succeeding three, any one of which 

 would have tossed our cockle-shell high up on the 

 jagged lava. I found to my disappointment that 

 we had between us only one hook and that a large 

 one. However, I anchored again near the spot 

 where I had last dived and threw over the hook. 

 I immediately caught one of the round-headed pig- 

 fish, about a foot in length. As I was pulling in a 

 second one, a six-foot shark swung toward him and 

 this gave me a hint upon which I acted at once. I 

 pulled in the fish quickly and studied the situation 



