160 PICTURING MIRACLES 



covered with vast swaying colonies of anemone, hy- 

 droids, all sorts of life. Some of the anemone with 

 their heads and mouths open just like a great chrys- 

 anthemum, their vascular, colored tentacles waving 

 back and forth in the water just as the petals of the 

 flower wave in the wind in life, only faster. Touch 

 one and it contracts and disappears in front of you. 

 These caves could well be the home of octopi and 

 other denizens of the deep, waiting concealed to dash 

 out on their prey. I did not explore these caves be- 

 cause I was entirely unarmed, and it was too dark 

 to take pictures anyhow, so why venture in? 



There were many kinds of coral, great round 

 boulder-like masses of Brain Coral, beautiful in de- 

 sign, dull in color. The red Fan Coral, waving fan- 

 like branches, that looked for all the world like some 

 of the tropic plant vegetation, and other kinds too 

 numerous to mention. In and around them all these 

 beautifully colored fish, nibbling on the stone 

 branches that did not fully protect the animals who 

 had built them against attacks from larger fish. And 

 so the struggle of life goes on, a constant war on the 

 weaker or less protected forms, to sustain life in the 

 stronger, on land as well as under sea. 



There were many forms of shellfish, sometimes on 

 the coral, other times migrating from one home to 

 another. Some of them were wonderfully beautiful; 



