The American Museum Journal 



VoLlMK .Will 



FKI'.IUAin 



!t|S 



NUMHKK 'J. 



Haunts and Habits of Tropical Fishes 



OHSKKVATIOXS OF AN KX l'L( »K' IlK'. K*,*!! IM'KD Wri'll A I )I \l N( i-l H )(»!). 



IN 'I'lIK INKNOWN \V(»RLI) OF CORAL LA I'.V i>' I N'I'I IS 



AT TlIK I'.OTTOM OF TIIF SKA 



H\ W. H . I. () N ( ; L i<: Y 



(GoiuluT College, Baltimore, and the Departiiieiit of Marino Biology, 

 Carnegie Institution of Washin^ilon) 



F|-'.\\ p.iris III' ilii' world seem at 

 oiice so sal'el}' accessible and so 

 little known as certain parts ly- 

 ing in water less than twenty feet deep 

 in tropical seas. Tropical reefs and the 

 reef fanna have been described repeat- 

 edly, to be sure, by itinerant natural- 

 ists; but no one who has not clothed 

 himself in some sort of diving equip- 

 ment, clambered over and among the 

 corals, and explored as best he might 

 the lalivi-intli of passages they enclose, 

 and iiicasurrMl Ids own height against 

 theirs ami that of spreading gorgo- 

 nians. which in surface view seem so 

 slight and graceful, really knows the 

 reef as it is. 



The observer at the surface of the 

 water sees what lies below in little more 

 than two dimensions. From his posi- 

 tion he fails further to comprehend the 

 conditions under which the reef-popu- 

 lation lives, for water appears to him 

 to be essentially colorless crystal, which 

 blurs no outline, and in which to hide 

 would seem impossible. But when, cov- 

 ered by water, he stands upon the bot- 

 tom, he speedily realizes how imperfect 

 is his knowledge of the ground he may 

 have studied from above until every de- 

 tail seemed familiar, and how signifi- 

 cant are the changes in(liice<l by sub- 

 stituting a very dense for a rarer 

 "atmosphere." 



I 'iiiiii;ii:inc(l (Icptli ol' shadow lies be- 

 neath unsuspected ledges inviting ex- 

 amination but no intrusion. What 

 seemed insignificant depressions become 

 veritable chasms, graven by fretful 

 waves upon an ancient shore now 

 sunken far beneath them. Apparent 

 high steps are abrupt walls, almost be- 

 yond scaling, if one's effective weight 

 were not so greatly reduced by his div- 

 ing equipment that trifling irregulai'i- 

 ties provide ample hold for foot or 

 hand. Profusely branched, gently 

 swaying gorgonians are waist or shoul- 

 der-high, and giant heads of coral tower 

 above, their mass in just proportion to 

 their hoary age. 



Over all there hangs a veil of mys- 

 tery. The water is no longer colorless, 

 crystal-clear, and unsubstantial. Dark- 

 ening with depth, its soft tints are all 

 pervasive. Tt blurs and softens every 

 outline. Except when the light is 

 strongest and it is itself most free from 

 sediment, it denies one sight of all but 

 the immediate surroundings, and re- 

 solves one's world into a diminutive hol- 

 low hemisphere, filled with silence, and 

 on all sides fading into nothingness. 



One's narrow field, however, if wisely 

 chosen, may teem with life. It is more 

 than ])robable that long-spined sea 

 nil liins. like animated caltrops, infest 

 tlic place. Iwiildlo their spines siigges- 



79 



