282 I N A G U A 



slowly, pausing frequently, spiraling or sidling off on all sorts 

 of side excursions. Suspended between these moving forms 

 was an innumerable assemblage of baby fish of a hundred 

 varieties. Every inch of this upper strata contained at least 

 one transparent fishlet or equally glass-like crustacean visible 

 to the naked eye, not to include the literal billions of micro- 

 organisms on which these small fry feed. The water was a 

 living soup; and the diatom feeders, those peculiar fishes that 

 are equipped with natural sieves and scoop nets within their 

 gaping mouths, were busily crisscrossing, gathering the manna 

 which, instead of faUing from heaven, strangely floated as 

 though the laws of gravitation had been inexplicably and 

 suddenly repealed. 



A most magnificent cavalcade crossed this area when a 

 school of six large tarpon, gleaming burnished silver on their 

 large scales, went by without stopping. The tarpon were fol- 

 lowed by a tremendous school of mackerel, which as nearly 

 as I could determine by the appearance of their well-sepa- 

 rated dorsal fins and small curved tails belong to the genus 

 Aiixis, or frigate mackerels. Each was about a foot in length 

 and was streaked with a line of intense yellow which flamed 

 in iridescent glow just above their lateral lines. The school 

 was so huge that its passage temporarily darkened the water, 

 and the excitement occasioned by its passage caused a veritable 

 deluge of small fishes seeking to escape this finny hurricane. 

 Long after they had gone the more sedentary surface fishes 

 went periodically into small local flurries; their frenzied ac- 

 tivity sent myriads of darting forms whirling about in a con- 

 tagion of fear which spread in widening circles. 



But the main impression of the reef was one of peace. Ex- 

 cept for the occasional forays of the houndfish and the amus- 

 ing angers of the incautious Beau-gregorys there was no sense 

 of strife or danger. Rather, the reef was a cosmos reigned over 



