THE MAKING OF AN ISLAND 143 



gray suffused with a suggestion of lavender to a rich chocolate 

 brown. These were capable of rapid color change and within 

 a few minutes could assume a complete alteration of tone, 

 blushing yellow, pinkish or green-gray as their mood dictated. 

 I collected quite a series, shooting them with the dust shot after 

 shaking the water out of the gun and laying it in the sun to 

 dry. By some strange accident my hat remained with me and 

 provided me with sufficient shells. But I was hardly an example 

 of what the well-dressed herpetologist should wear roaming 

 about the island stark naked except for a wet hat which flopped 

 loosely about my ears. 



Sheep Cay was truly a remarkable place. It was occupied 

 by two species of trees, a few small bushes, three genera of 

 crabs, a large variety of mollusks, one kind of lizard and one 

 mammal— myself. This was the island's total population with 

 the exception of a little green heron which screeched in alarm 

 and fled when I arrived and a host of stinging mosquitoes and 

 sand fleas. The trees were the most obvious living organisms, 

 thirteen in all. Twelve of the thirteen were cocoanut palms 

 and they were distributed along the shores of a little cove which 

 penetrated the island near the middle. The other tree spread 

 over all the remainder of Sheep Cay and was the most mag- 

 nificent individual of its species I have ever seen. There is a 

 possibility that it was composed originally of more than one 

 plant but these had so coalesced as to be indistinguishable. This 

 tree possessed no less than several hundred separate yet united 

 trunks and perhaps three or four thousand upraised roots which 

 supported these trunks on a raised platform well above the 

 level of the salt water. The roots were intermingled and en- 

 twined in an indescribable maze; the branches twisted and 

 wove their way upwards, fusing in countless places, locking 

 arms, bracing one joint against another, until an impenetrable 

 fretwork of timber supported a canopy of dark green leaves. 



