THEGREATREEF 281 



and, like the tang, fled ignominiously. But the mackerel 

 amazed me still further by gliding to the surface and there 

 snapping up a glistening silverside which was peacefully idling 

 just below the surface film minding its own business. This 

 lesson "in what might have happened" had no visible effect 

 on the Beau-gregory, for shortly after it was busily engaged 

 in driving- another intruder from its domain. 



Still another category of life about the reef had its exist- 

 ence in the few feet just beneath the surface. Here a consider- 

 able galaxy of organisms hung forever suspended between the 

 wrinkled mirror of the top of the sea and the regions lower 

 down. These were even graded according to their distance 

 from the waves. Farthest up were the houndfish, which were 

 long streamlined creatures equipped with double rows of 

 murderous-looking teeth. They are savage carnivores belong- 

 ing to the genus Strongylura and although the whole of their 

 activity took place within a narrow zone they were so swift 

 and well equipped that they garnered a good living by prey- 

 ing on the hundreds of silversides, bumpers and flyingfish, 

 which also wxre restricted to this area. The energy of these 

 houndfish, once they got into motion, was amazing. They ap- 

 peared as living arrows, as indeed they were. At such great 

 speed do they move that they have been known to injure 

 fishermen severely into whose boats they have blundered 

 during some of their spectacular spear-like leaps after flying- 

 fish. Their prey was usually caught crosswise in their bills, 

 crushed and shaken until dead and then momentarily released 

 to be turned head foremost for easy swallowing. 



The roof of this liquid world was a network of living crea- 

 tures. There was an endless pfocession of small fishes continu- 

 ally passing to and fro at all conceivable angles. Some of these 

 passed hurriedly, rushing by as though the very devil were 

 after them, as indeed they may have imagined. Others drifted 



