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I N A G U A 



moil of 1 914 are indirectly slaying thousands of men on the 

 battlefields of Europe though a quarter of a century has passed. 



In a great city, or on a continent, the separate threads of life 

 are not readily discernible. They are submerged in a tangled 

 mass of fabrics superimposed one upon the other with connec- 

 tions so intricate that they are difficult to separate and follow. 

 This is one of the joys of a tropical oceanic island. Life is tightly 

 enclosed in a wall of surf, the strands begin and end within 

 narrow borders. Because of this they may readily be traced to 

 their conclusions or their general patterns are discernible. 



An island might be compared to a prison. It is a prison with- 

 out bars or cells, the only walls are the lines of gleaming surf, 

 molten and shining as silver; the warden is circumstance. To be 

 born on an island is to be a prisoner, few escape. The very fact 

 of insularity sets the creatures of an island apart. The Hzards 

 that frequented the clearing of my hut often dashed down 

 to the parapet of rocks overlooking the sea and there stopped 

 as though they sensed that this was the edge of their world. 

 They never ventured beyond this prescribed limit. Even the 

 hummingbirds, which should have been free, terminated their 

 whirling flights at the borders of the vegetation. There was 

 nothing to hold them back; yet I never saw one venture be- 

 yond. That their close family relatives, the Ruby Throats of 

 North America, would unhesitatingly fling their diminutive 

 bodies across the whole five hundred miles of the turbulent 

 width of the Gulf of Mexico is one of the wonders of the 

 world; the Inaguan species never went beyond the surf. The 

 impelling tide of migration passes them by; the whole sphere 

 of their existence is bound, delimited by a wall of water. 



How very wonderful and intricate this web of island life 

 could be I had yet to learn. But the thought persisted. In the 

 evening when I had camped in the shelter of a sand dune and 

 devoured my scanty meal of doves and one wild duck shot dur- 



