in the afternoon, preparatory to leaving with Sea Diver 

 the following morning. If the weather held good the 

 next day, we would cruise the length of the reef to the 

 east, a distance of about fifteen miles, before starting for 

 Puerto Plata. It was necessary to time our going so that we 

 would arrive at our destination in daylight. We also had 

 to figure on getting away from the reefs when the sun 

 was still high enough for us to pick our way among the 

 coral heads which dotted the banks. 



I went along in Reef Diver. I had been in her bow 

 two long hours, my eyes nearly popping out of my head 

 from the strain of staring through the glass bottom, when 

 I was conscious of unusual sounds on deck. At the same 

 moment, the boat forged ahead under a sudden access of 

 power, marked by the increased pitch of the jet, and I 

 noted that our course over the ocean bottom made a shaip 

 change. 



Then Glenn poked his head through the doorway 

 and said, "We can't work this reef from the outside. 

 Those swells almost sucked us onto the rocks. We're going 

 aroiuid on the inside." 



I went on deck to see what was happening and found 

 that the swells were indeed tremendous. As they reached 

 the reefs, they seemed to envelop them, rising up about 

 ten feet to inundate them, then suddenly subsiding. They 

 thus created vicious-looking boilers which completely en- 

 circled the rocks. I looked at the sky, which was still 

 unclouded, and noticed a slightly hazy, purplish cast to 

 the southeast. There was something about the day that 

 fiUed me with foreboding. 



The others, too, were uneasy. We completed our 

 search without finding anything of interest. We were just 

 as happy. The reefs were wild in this area, the bottom 

 rough and distorted, and the coral growth so lush, the 



The Silver Shoals 285 



