ON THE REEF 107 



the rocks, every step you take, every little pool, wilJ reveal 

 fresh treasures. 



The tide was not at its best when we reached the reef, but 

 it was still low enough for us to spend a couple of hours among 

 the pools. Our walking boots were quickly changed for sand- 

 shoes, brought for the purpose, for the coralline growth on the 

 rocks is very cruel to tender feet. My short skirts were 

 shortened still further, and then we were ready for the fray. 



If you go into the bush to watch the birds, or gather the 

 flowers, you often spend a whole afternoon in a fruitless quest. 

 If you go to collect shells on the beach, you often find it as 

 bare as if 



" Seven maids with seven mops 

 Swept it for half a year " 



but on a reef you are never disappointed. There is always 

 something to be found among the rocky pools, some treasure 

 to be unearthed by the turning of a stone. 



And this day was no exception. On the side of the rocks, 

 well below high-water mark, we found some rare and beautiful 

 chitons. The chiton, it might be explained to the uninitiated, 

 is that fiat shell beastie which every one has seen clinging to 

 the rocks at low tide, and whose shell is not in one solid piece 

 like the limpet's, but is a series of overlapping plates encircled 

 by a girdle. These beasties are often possessed of exquisite 

 sculpture in their shells, and when seen beneath the water are 

 radiant in colouring, although, like most seaborn things, 



