THE GREAT REEF 



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a most artistic and unusual pattern. I reached out to touch one 

 but before my fingers contacted it, their shadow fell across 

 the petals. The blossom was jerked back into the stone so 

 rapidly I could barely see the movement. I reached for an- 

 other, and it, too, was pulled out of sight. Where the blos- 

 soms had been were only a number of slight round holes. I 

 knew then that the blossoms were not flowers at all but sea 

 worms, long wriggly creations of pecuHar form that spend 

 their entire lives hidden in the interstices of the rock. The 

 sensation that this sight afforded is the same as one would 

 have in a garden should one try to pick a daisy or a nastur- 

 tium and have it suddenly yanked into the ground. My arm, 

 casting a moving shadow, was all that was necessary to send 

 dozens of these creatures hurtling into their burrows. Imagine 

 walking through a hothouse and having the flowers fold up 

 as you progressed. Yet more strangely, when the sun went be- 

 hind a cloud, and cast a shadow identical to that produced by 

 my arm these worms moved not at all but merely swayed 

 and curled with the flow of the currents. 



The flower-like petals are really the means by which the 

 worms seize the microscopic prey on which they feed and 

 carry it to their mouths. Life for them is principally a ques- 

 tion of waiting patiently with tentacles expanded for the 

 currents to bring them food. The usual connotation of the 

 word "worm" conveys something mean and low, or a slimy 

 creature that frequents the damp and dark. The worms of this 

 Inaguan coral reef are almost all lovely. Why they should be 

 so exquisite is hard to answer unless it is because everything 

 else on the reef is so gorgeous that to be ugly would seem 

 out of place. 



The worms were not the only flower-like animals that prac- 

 ticed deceit. Brilliant sponges of red, emerald green, maroon 

 and lavender pretended to be mosses and plastered the rock 



