DISSEI, BROWN ISLAND * 43 



habitat, there are the conditions of Hfe for all. In non- 

 tropical seas life is possible only for the cautious and the 

 protected. 



At Ras Dogon we caught few fish for the sole reason that 

 there were altogether too many fish. I remember that I 

 stopped fifteen feet down, gun in hand, finger on trigger, 

 unable to decide whether it was to be that diagram or that 

 red bream ... no wait, there's a pampano ; blast, a demoiselle 

 fish has got between me and a barracuda, there it is, no it's 

 another; now I shall shoot the next fish that comes my 

 way . . . then four turn up simultaneously. . . . When I came 

 to the surface I felt quite drunk and was glad to rest my eyes 

 on the even coastline of the desert where there was peace and 

 solitude. 



That day I followed a handsome turtle in vain, observed 

 with Gigi a small curiously striped shark, and to defend my 

 good name caught — by chance — the biggest fish of the day, 

 a ten-pound pampano. But then from Cecco came categorical 

 orders reminding us of our duty to the formalin pot. We 

 slaved to fill the boat and it was soon done, with new kinds 

 of parrot-fish (new to us that is), greyskins and coralline 

 fish. In the heap a glorious porcupine fish turned up, puffed 

 out like a spiny Easter tgg. 



Before leaving Ras Dogon we decided to search for 

 molluscs on the beach at low tide. We got out of the boat 

 and pushed it a hundred yards or so on to the dry, walking 

 claw-footed on the prickly madreporic sand. This was an 

 exhausting manoeuvre although we were used to it by now. 

 Then, under a sun of 122° F or more we began collecting 

 shells. Numerous and beautiful were the cowries, like Danish 

 porcelain. As already confessed the cowries were and are my 

 one weakness, but it so happened that if I found two, Cecco 

 found four; if I with a shout of joy found a new species, 



