THE KINGDOM OF THE HELMET 7 1 



The Kingdom of the Helmet is not only a new experi- 

 ence for us, but the place in past eons of time of fiercest 

 competition, and most spectacular evolution. It is a rib- 

 bon of a kingdom, of negligible depth — from six to sixty 

 feet, and narrow in width — from a few inches to two 

 miles. Its length is amazing — perhaps one hundred and 

 fifty thousand miles of winding, submarine paths, rim- 

 ming the rocks and cliffs of temperate fiords and bays; all 

 along the palm-lined shores of southern continents, and 

 the innumerable circles and rings of tropic isles and atolls. 

 Perhaps the most interesting and exciting places are the 

 reefs and shallows far from shore, like those of Bermuda 

 which I have named Almost Island, where one can go 

 overboard and to the bottom surrounded on all sides by 

 depths forbidden to present ambulatory exploration.^ 



When the summer's sun has warmed our northern 

 waters, let us climb down the ladder off some rocky coast, 

 say of Maine or Massachusetts. At once we begin to realize 

 our new-found superiority: Yesterday we crept painfully 

 over legions of barnacles and peered ineffectually into 

 outer depths. Now we pass quickly beyond the barnacle 

 zone below lowest tide-mark, where things have been wet 

 since creation. A little farther down and the last of the 

 steel-blue mussels passes from view, and then we perceive 

 the great clinging roots of the giant seaweeds, with their 

 leathery fronds stretching up and up to the surface. Green 

 urchins give place to other larger species, and two or three 



^ "Nonsuch: Land of Water," p. 33. 



