SLUMBERERS OF THE SURGE 305 



carangid, two feet or more in length and swifter 

 than any other. In clans of ten or a dozen they 

 come out of the translucent blue, and, as they ap- 

 proach, slip off the azure veil which dims them and 

 flash out pure silver, for, from my position, I see 

 them with the eye of a true dweller in these deeps. 

 They are built with the finest of stream lines, nar- 

 row peduncle aft, wide crescentic tail, long, falcate 

 pectorals. Around and around me they go, arous- 

 ing keen interest and admiration, where the 

 groupers induced suspicion and distrust. I felt 

 that these were fish of caste, fighting, if they must, 

 in the open. Their relation with other smaller fish 

 was a mystery or else to be explained by sleight-of- 

 fin legerdemain. None paid any more attention to 

 them than to the grazers. Yet these were of a far 

 other sort. Three separate times I saw one of 

 these carangids move out of the circle they were 

 drawing around me, with a twist and a flash as 

 quick as light, and each time a small wrasse swim- 

 ming near, absolutely disappeared as if suddenly 

 dissolved. It reminded me of the frog-and-his- 

 tongue trick, — a frog facing a fly a considerable 

 distance away, and suddenly the fly is gone. You 

 are sure it went down the frog's throat, but no 

 human eye is quick enough to see all the details. 

 And so the flash of silver caranx seems not to 

 approach or touch the little wrasse — and yet the 

 wrasse is no longer interested in food or life, and 

 the caranx is back in place, swimming quietly, 

 breathing gently. 



These fish would take no bait and they avoided 





