i6i 



So I telephoned the hotel and asked the manager to send the 

 necessities, 'muito muito depressa', with plenty of ice, and, as 

 is usual with the Portuguese, it was all there in record time. We 

 did not stay long and, after hasty but cordial adieux, took off at 

 12.55 p.m. into a mizzling north-wester. Although weather 

 reports stated that it was cloudy with rain most of the way south, 

 Blaauw said he hoped to reach Louren9o Marques by 6 p.m. 

 and to get to Durban that night. It seemed ambitious, but he was 

 the expert. I calculated that my wife, due at Port Elizabeth early 

 that morning, should already be at home, though I naturally 

 knew nothing of the road breakdown she had in reality endured 

 on the way. 



This was almost the worst part of the flight. We went up to 

 15,000 feet again, and there was nothing to see but cloud. It was 

 beastly cold in that unlined metal shell, so I lay down on the 

 floor wrapped in my bag and tried to sleep, but despite two 

 restless, wakeful nights my mind was still racing madly, weighing 

 up all that had happened and planning all that still had to be done. 

 I must not let my exultation lead me astray, for I knew only too 

 well that enthusiasm can end in a long and painful walk back, 

 and this was a peak of achievement I had not before attained. 

 Virtually alone in the scientific world, I had held to my conviction 

 that the Coelacanth was to be found in the reefs of the East 

 African region, and if what I had learned at Dzaoudzi was cor- 

 rect, the fish I now had with me was not just another stray, like 

 the one at East London, but a homebird at home. It should be 

 only a matter of time before others were found. Yes, I was exulting. 

 It had not been pleasant to have one's deductions just pushed 

 aside. I thought again of Smuts, with his ready ear for the overseas 

 experts. 



It was strange to look back on how almost all other scientists 

 had been united on that issue. It was almost a kind of conspiracy 

 between them. There was the opinion of the British Museum that 

 the East London Coelacanth was obviously a stray from the 

 deeper parts of the ocean. . . . The Danish deep-sea expedition 

 had gone hunting hoping to find the Coelacanths in the great 

 depths; palaeontologists in America and other countries! They 

 were satisfied that Coelacanths lived in the Tn accessible depths 

 of the ocean*. All of them knew it was ludicrous to go fishing for 



