274 I N A G U A 



it proved to be a great jagged hillside, cleft with deep ravines 

 and pitted with dark caves. Paradoxically, and unlike the 

 hillsides on land, the tree line was on the upper slopes instead 

 of the lower. Besides the swaying of the water which dragged 

 me from place to place was the complication that I could not 

 judge distance. The refraction was too great. I was surprised 

 to find that sea fans for which I reached in order to steady 

 myself and which appeared to be within arm's distance were 

 really six feet or more away. To my discomfort I found my- 

 self time and again placing my foot on mounds of white brain 

 coral which simply were not there. Although I have been 

 undersea many times this reef was the most confusing place 

 of my experience. Repeatedly I fell helplessly and slowly into 

 deep holes. This was disturbing because usually as a result of 

 some trick of the current I fell in backwards and could not 

 see where I was tumbling. I was afraid of landing on a nest 

 of sea urchins whose poisonous spines I could see jutting out 

 from the crevices. Once I brushed against a smooth brownish 

 coral which burned like nettles. I was worried about cutting 

 my legs on the sharp stone. I knew what that would mean. 

 Undersea in the tropics is no place in which to be bleeding, 

 for the scent of blood drives some of the carnivores mad. 



But presently I began to get the hang of the thing. I found 

 the best way was to aim for a smooth mound of rock, gauge 

 the distance carefully, and then leap into space allowing for 

 the swing of the w^ater. So near balance was I that, even 

 though I was carrying nearly eighty pounds of lead, I could, 

 with a light spring, float upwards and out for ten feet or 

 more, drift gently through space and come down again like 

 the lightest feather. Later when I became practiced at the 

 art I found that twenty-foot leaps were quite feasible. 



Once I started an underwater landsHde. I had reached the 

 edge of a deep valley, a vertical wall hung with sea fans and 



