DWELLERS OF THE SURF in 



ferocity was etched in every line of its narrow ugly head. When 

 it was dead I cut it in two pieces and threw them into the sea. 

 Its stomach contained the remains of several squirrel-fish and 

 the ground up fragments of a crab. 



The moray, however, was only an incident although a 

 memorable one. The real marvel of the surf and the cliff by the 

 sea did not become apparent at once or in one evening. Like 

 some of the more intricate passages of Wagner or Beethoven, 

 it had to be assimilated little by little, becoming more under- 

 standable, more wonderful with repetition. At first glance the 

 cliff seemed a lifeless place except for the magnificent action 

 afforded by the sweeping roll of the surf, but I soon came to 

 know the twenty feet from the top of the rocks to the level of 

 the sea as one of the most complex organizations, of animal life 

 in existence. 



My seaside bathtub served a dual purpose. It not only pro- 

 vided a place to swim and relax; it also enabled me to sink 

 gently out of sight and observe, without being observed, the 

 host of animals that made the surf their dwelling place. Few of 

 the birds and beasts that came to the chff seemed to associate 

 my bobbing head with the anatomy of a human being; hence I 

 was not an object of suspicion. Also my submersion made it 

 possible to look at existence from a snail's-eye view for the 

 edge of the pool was exactly on a line with the uppermost swirl 

 of the advancing combers. By sinking up to my eyes and re- 

 clining sideways, like some ill-proportioned manatee, I could 

 place myself on an equal plane with the mussels and anemones, 

 slightly above that of the fish and just below the stratum oc- 

 cupied by the dashing Grapsus crabs. Poised midway between 

 land and sea I commanded a view of both, belonging to neither; 

 by merely shifting my eyes, I could look straight down to the 

 shadowy depths or up at the racing clouds. 



Discovery is largely a matter of point of view. I have often 



