The Perils of the Ova 267 



should have made them visible, was in every case in 

 the lower half of the pearly globule, which was half 

 hidden in the soft sand. Very gently the warm current 

 glided over them, so gently that no ripple, even the 

 faintest, disturbed their repose or the fecundating opera- 

 tions going on within them. But here and there a 

 tiny fish almost matching the sand in colourlessness 

 swam invisibly along the pearly rows, culling now 

 and then a delightful morsel in the shape of an ovule 

 a little plumper than its neighbours. And though 

 these ghostly visitors were very small their appetite 

 was amazingly developed, for each of them was 

 responsible for the disappearance of some dozens of 

 eggs in the course of an hour or two's swim, which, 

 considering that none of the depredators were more 

 than six inches long, was evidence of extreme voracity. 

 Now and then a bright shadow would glide phantom- 

 like through the clear space, apparently just evolved 

 out of nothingness, there was a moment's contact 

 between it and one of the egg-eaters, and, presto, 

 the latter had disappeared, as does a bubble when it 

 bursts. And thus the balance of Nature was adjusted, 

 for this is only a specimen of the constant interchange 

 of commodities going on. 



The enemies of the hatching eggs were, indeed, 

 so numerous even in this sequestered spot, that as the 

 days went by their numbers dwindled to such an extent 

 that it seemed almost an impossibility that any of 

 them should survive till the emergence of the fry. 

 Even the tiny crabs, which are ubiquitous, although 

 some of them were less than half an inch across the 

 carapace, were continually employed in lugging away 

 the savoury morsels to their home crannies beneath 

 the rocks, like ants carrying away provender for 

 storage. They were frequently sucked in, egg and all, 



