THE MAKING OF AN ISLAND 151 



my Maryland farm, woodland and cleared space, dry soil and 

 wet, probably contains more different species of animals and 

 plants than all of Inagua Island, though, of course, not the 

 numbers of each. An oceanic island achieves its fauna and flora 

 by long methods of trial and error; a dozen creatures arriving 

 by wind or wave or on the bodies of animals or birds perish 

 to every one that survives. A single storm on an islet as small 

 as Sheep Cay can destroy in one night the accumulated contri- 

 butions of a hundred years of favorable circumstance. 



I patted the soil about the newly planted seed, adjusted the 

 conchs once more, gathered up the gun and my limp hat, and 

 then with my heart thumping with apprehension waded out 

 to the edge of the shoals and slipped quietly into the water. 



