UNDER-SEA PHOTOGRAPHY 161 



then the clams, not the kind we eat, but large ones 

 with scalloped shells, half hidden in the sand, their 

 mouths open waiting for some form of life to explore 

 their internal anatomy, when the shells would sud- 

 denly close and they soon became part of that anat- 

 omy. These clams were dangerous. They were large 

 enough to catch your foot if you stepped on one 

 you would get a nasty bite and perhaps lose a toe or 

 two. 



The giant clams thirty inches in diameter, large 

 enough to weigh almost a ton, could crush the large 

 bones of your leg if they closed on it. I saw only one 

 of these huge fellows and it would have taken a der- 

 rick to pull him loose and raise him into the boat. 



There is danger in this under-sea work the dan- 

 ger of sharks. Barracuda, the tigers of the sea, are 

 eight or ten feet long and can easily take an arm 

 or leg in each dash at you. Most dreaded of all are 

 the great jelly-fish. One of those huge masses two 

 feet in diameter made up of some 95% of water 

 has tendrils ten feet long, and one of them, drag- 

 ging across you as he drifts by, injects a poison that 

 would partially, possibly wholly, paralyze you. The 

 natives dread them more than the sharks. Still, with 

 ordinary care there is no more danger than crossing 

 a busy city street dodging one of "Henry's sharks," 

 and others of the species. 



