140 CONTOUR DIVING 



feet high. A group of large fish held our attention di- 

 rectly below. I could not quite identify them, and they 

 were whirling around some focus of attraction when a 

 dark shadow fell across the window. I looked up and saw 

 that we were drifting rapidly toward an enormous crag 

 or part of a coral reef, towering fifty feet or more above 

 us, and covered on its almost perpendicular slope with 

 great outreaching crags and sharp, water- worn hooks and 

 snags. I sent the most urgent S.O.S. on the wire to haul us 

 up as rapidly as possible, and we could almost hear the 

 hissing steam as the winch began to turn at full speed. 

 Fortunately there were no clamps to cut free. As we as- 

 cended we swung nearer and nearer the cliff, and the wav- 

 ing sea-fans and great anemones grew larger, and we were 

 so close that every detail, every small fish became visible. 



I fully expected to strike and had already formulated 

 the next order, which would have been to let us out as 

 rapidly as we had been drawn up and to go astern full 

 speed. In this way we might have slipped down the reef 

 without becoming entangled and when the tug had backed 

 over the reef we would have swung clear. 



But again the clarity of the fused quartz windows de- 

 ceived us and we just cleared the summit, passing so close 

 to it that I am sure our wooden base must have brushed 

 the finger-like plumes on the reef top. 



Even if we had struck, no harm might have resulted; 

 we might have bumped and scraped up and over the top. 

 But a straight blow on one of the quartz windows, or 



