THE MARVEL OF A TIDE 



315 



as though they would momently tear loose. There was none of 

 the gentle swaying and graceful undulations of the sea fans 

 that I had seen on the reef. The actions of the marine plants 

 and organisms gave the impression that a vast underwater 

 hurricane was brewing and that they would all be shorn away 

 into the blue abyss beyond. Some had been pulled from their 

 anchorages, for large heads of orange-colored algae went 

 swirling past and were lost in the haze. Clinging to one of them 

 was the curved, ringed torso of a spotted seahorse and the 

 saffron colored carapace of a small crab. They were battling 

 bravely to maintain their positions on the rotating fronds, but 

 they were probably going to a certain death. Sooner or later 

 the buoyant tissues would lose their freshness, become limp and 

 watersoaked, the particles of enclosed gas would escape and 

 the seahorse and crab would coast with the plant to the deep 

 sea bottom far off shore away from their accustomed habitat. 

 Somewhere down in the blackness they would be snatched up 

 by a hungry deep sea creature or would slowly deliquesce amid 

 the abyssal ooze and slime. 



While the tide was disaster for the tiny cosmos of the orange 

 algae-head, it was the high road for the larger more vigorous 

 fishes which took full advantage of the current to carry them 

 on errands best known to themselves. A few fish attempted to 

 breast the tide but large numbers permitted themselves to be 

 carried on its strenuous course. How like people they were, 

 taking the path of least resistance, going full speed towards an 

 intangible goal, to be returned again when the tide changed. 

 In just this way human action follows the main stream of 

 thought, climbing on the fashionable bandwagons of a par- 

 ticular movement. Large numbers of big hogfish, gaudy fel- 

 lows splattered with reds and deep oranges went by in a steady 

 stream. Several times vast schools of blue-striped grunts, gleam- 

 ing with brilliant iridescence, obscured the sand, so closely 



