ipo 



I N A G U A 



of this shallow pond was once the outermost sea barrier, and 

 at no greatly distant period the surf crashed and thundered over 

 its intricacies. 



Walking back again to the nearly barren rampart dune I 

 surveyed the scene. Mile upon mile the existing reef curved 

 away into the distance. Behind this was a shallow lagoon, then 

 the rampart dunes, the parallel lake and a series of low hills 

 roUing into the interior, becoming more covered with vegeta- 

 tion and obscure. Inagua was growing into the wind. The reef 

 was most luxuriant where the surf was the most violent; ever 

 outward the tentacled polyps were reaching, seeking the swirl- 

 ing water with its billions of micro-organisms, striving to escape 

 the bogging sand of the lagoon behind. There were even a few 

 spots where at low tide one could almost walk dry shod to the 

 very edge of the reef. The story of the buried reef in the pond 

 would soon be repeated; before long a new reef would be 

 formed further out, growing up from the clean water and bury- 

 ing the reef behind. Then the wind would take up its task and 

 drift the sands into another rampart, possibly forming another 

 shallow pond and covering up the existing lake in turn. 



The present pond was filled with diminutive shells of cerith- 

 eum, those tiny mollusks on which the flamingos depend for 

 their sustenance. Flamingos and ceritheums are synonymous; 

 without ceritheums flamingos would probably cease to exist, 

 their anatomy is specialized for the sifting of these shells from 

 the silt of the lake bottoms. The occurrence of ceritheums in 

 this newly formed lake was interesting. How did they get 

 there? Certainly not overland, the nearest pond was several 

 miles away. Not by the ocean, for these particular snails do 

 not thrive under marine conditions. There was only one answer. 

 By air; these mollusks probably arrived on the feet or bills of 

 birds from other ponds. 



This was interesting speculation. How many other organisms 



