DWELLERS OF THE SURF 113 



smothered by rivulets of bubbly water, were a number of huge 

 pincushions with barbarous needles, grotesque affairs of the 

 most intense purple, almost black, but which showed thou- 

 sands of tiny facets of scarlet and lavender iridescence. The 

 needles themselves were graven with deUcately etched lines 

 like the blades of old Damascus steel; the tips were fretted with 

 cruel hooks. Beside these were a number of armor plated tanks 

 with the armor set in parallel rows overlapping to give utmost 

 protection. These rows were banded with a flexible rim that 

 extended to the ground and which was studded with closely set 

 jewels, emeralds and sapphires, a sprinkling of garnets and 

 amethysts, crystals of beryl and zircon. These were set in com- 

 binations, emeralds and garnets in wavy bands so as to give an 

 impression of studied but unsuccessful camouflage. 



Nothing was in proper proportion. The volcanoes were 

 dwarfed by the gigantic pincushion, the armored tank was 

 nearly as large as the emerald towers and the scarlet carpets 

 stretched away for acres and acres. Only by raising my head 

 and adjusting the focus of my eyes did creation come back to 

 normal. Then the yellow world resolved itself to a slope of 

 leathery algae, the carpets of scarlet became encrusting sponges, 

 the volcanoes assumed the dimensions of limpets; the jeweled 

 tank turned into the back of a chiton; the monstrous pincushion, 

 the prickly body of a purple sea urchin; the heaving horizon, 

 but the summit of an advancing wave. 



The armored tank, however, gave the clue to the entire 

 scene. This was a world of warfare, a place of continual strife 

 where only those creatures equipped with heavy armor plating, 

 cases of rigid shell, steel sharp spikes or other armament were 

 able to survive. Nowhere in all the realm of nature is there a 

 more bitter struggle for existence than that which takes place 

 by the edge of the sea. The region bounded by high and low 

 water is an area of instability, of alternate dry and wet, a place 



