ii6 I N A G U A 



reasonable when one day I made an extensive collection of a 

 species of limpet from an area both above and below the line 

 of the surf and found that those individuals which lived at the 

 places of the most violent action had the thickest shells. How 

 like the fundamentalists were these mollusks; the more variable 

 the world, the more case hardened they become. 



The mussels, those purple-black bivalves that grow together 

 in thickly crowded clumps, used a system of resistance unlike 

 any other creatures of the surf. By some marvelous chemistry 

 they derived a substance from the sea water which they spun in 

 long silken ropes which they cast out in all directions, like the 

 warp lines of a schooner, anchoring them firmly to the rocks. 

 The number of lines which they put out seemed to be in inverse 

 ratio to the safety of their position. These anchor lines are 

 known as byssus, and it was from their substance that the tough 

 but silky garments known as tarentum were manufactured 

 which graced the bodies of the lords and ladies of medieval 

 Europe. Because the mussels were so unusual I was hard put to 

 think of what human category they might be linked with; then 

 it occurred to me that they were not unlike those sedentary 

 people who go in for life insurance policies and annuities, who 

 buy gilt-edged securities and low interest bonds; forever throw- 

 ing out lines to windward against the vicissitudes of life. And 

 like these people, when the surf overcame them they always 

 went down in masses, the entangled strands of byssus giving 

 way all at once, precipitating them into the depths to be gob- 

 bled up by hungry fish. 



Exactly opposite to these were the Grapsus crabs. They 

 lived about the pool in the dozens; their sizes varied from little 

 fellows a half inch in width to massive individuals measuring 

 eight inches from claw to claw. They wore brown suits of 

 wavy strips and mottled checks exactly the hue of the rocks. 



