THE MARVEL OF A TIDE 311 



winged seeds that had floated too far on the trades. There 

 were also a few dead bugs, the frayed and broken wings of a 

 butterfly, and some beetle elytra, little else. For the land crea- 

 tures the top of the sea was death and failure. But a mere frac- 

 tion of an inch beneath, the reverse was true; the under film 

 was a marine maternity ward. For clinging to the burnished 

 ceiling was a host of just-created things: baby fishes scarcely a 

 quarter of an inch in length, transparent as glass and as helpless 

 as the current-swirled plankton; microscopic lacy crustaceans 

 aglow with jets of iridescent color; round globular pelagic eggs 

 with long filaments and dark specks of nuclei; small blobs of 

 pulsating jellies just released from their rock-dwelling, hy- 

 droidlike, animal-flower parents; and other myriads too small 

 to be identifiable to the naked eye but made apparent by the 

 rays of sunlight they caught and refracted. This final yard of 

 open sea before the beginning of dry land was a veritable 

 hatchery of sea-Hfe. 



Swiftly I dropped into the wedge and entered the frothing 

 line of bubbles. These hurled about in all directions and I had 

 to seize a rock to keep from being smashed against the sheer 

 wall. The waves retreated and came plunging in again forcing 

 me to cling tightly, digging in toes and fingers like one of the 

 Grapsus crabs against the swirling retreat. Six times I crouched 

 against the onslaughts before there came a lull and I was able 

 to step lightly into space and float downwards to a ledge eight 

 or nine feet below. I had hardly landed when the seventh wave 

 came in and I had to fall on my knees to keep a firm hold. Once 

 more there came a period of quiet and again I jumped, pausing 

 momentarily on a round mound of meandrina before I gave 

 a final seven-league step and landed thirty feet below the sur- 

 face on the level white sand at the base of the cliff that was 

 the foundation of Inagua. 



Catching my balance and my breath I looked about. Sea- 



