88 DAHLAK 



fired and hit it square in the side. The arrow bounced. I 

 came up in consternation, but not without noticing that a 

 continuous blue streak was issuing from the white hole of 

 the wound (even blood becomes blue or green at a certain 

 depth). The rhinoceros was as good as finished. We had only 

 to follow it. I wanted to reload my gun, but the flights of the 

 harpoon were stuck up with one of the scales of the fish, the 

 same scale that prevented the animal's immediate death. I 

 tried with all my might to pull the scale off, but I could not 

 move it. It needed a hammer. The rhino was losing blood 

 continuously and in its last agonies. Gigi went down and 

 tried to get it with his hands. I followed behind and took two 

 photographs. The fish was still moving and free. But in that 

 moment Cecco, the deus ex machina, arrived with a gun. He 

 dropped on the fish with all his physical strength and pierced 

 it with six inches of steel. Victory was ours. 



The third rhinoceros, which was almost as big as the 

 second, fell to Gigi personally, on the eve of his return home. 

 During our explorations we met others, but let them go. One 

 was already in formalin (occupying almost the whole chest) 

 and from the second and third we took specimens of the 

 extraordinary jaws, bones and scales. A microscopic exami- 

 nation of this material established that the fish we three 

 captured that day was about thirty years old. 



We studied the habits of the abou-couroungiam, as the native 

 fishermen call them, on several occasions in different places. 

 Like Cousteau, we saw them discharge their clouds of coral 

 sand in the shallows. We confirmed that this was the same 

 sand as that on the bottom. Furthermore, after two months 

 we were able to establish the favourite variety of coral of our 

 fish. It is an unmistakable tubular formation filled with 

 colonies of polyps. This coral is generally found in shallow 

 water and is more common in the Dahlaks than in the region 



