248 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



The aspect of the bottom is that of a wilderness of marine 

 vegetation of the most wonderful forms and gorgeous colours, 

 seeming in some places to be spread over the surface of sloping 

 hills, in others to be growing out from the sides of tall pillars 

 or towers pierced with vast caves, in which the refracted 

 beams of the sunshine cause the Avater to glow with the 

 colours of the opal, and the innumerable species of zoophytes 

 clinging to the rocks to glisten like gems ; while between the 

 huge caverned masses are wide spaces floored with sand, 

 perfectly level, and white as snow, upon which the great green 

 mounds covered with coral trees throw fantastic shadows, 

 so that in leaning over the side of a canoe and contemplating 

 these very remarkable appearances one cannot escape being 

 reminded of the fabled grove of Aladdin, or of that garden 

 Avhich Don Quixote imagined himself to have seen in the 

 grotto of Montesinos, ' El mas bello ameno y deleytoso quo 

 puede criar la naturaleza ' (' The most beautiful and delightful 

 that nature can create '). Amongst all this are to be seen 

 great multitudes of fishes of the most extraordinary shapes 

 and hues gold, and purple, and violet, and scarlet, jet black, 

 mottled, and every shade of green. 



In some of the enclosed lagoons of the Tuamotus, all the 

 fish without exception are poisonous. There are many sharks, 

 but, as a rule, they are harmless to man, their natural food 

 being abundant ; at any rate, the pearl-fishers take no heed of 

 them. Their most disagreeable enemy is the veki or great 

 squid. This creature, who possesses the wonderful faculty of 

 being able, within five minutes, to change himself into fifty 

 different forms, each more hideous than the last, is fortunately 

 of a very retiring disposition and decidedly timid, otherwise 

 he would constitute a most dangerous antagonist. He stretches 

 out his long arms, and seizes whatever comes within his 



