18 JUNGLE PEACE 



and a number of berry-like structures, Here 

 and there are patches of thin ivory-white shells 

 — tiny whorls glued closely to the surface of the 

 leaves. Yet on this same small piece of weed 

 there may be several good-sized crabs, slug- 

 like creatures, shrimps and a fish two or three 

 inches in length. Until they move, the eye is 

 powerless to detach them. No two are alike; 

 the little frog-fish is mottled and striped, with 

 many small flabby filaments, and apparently 

 ragged fins, with curious hand-like fore limbs 

 which clutch the fronds closely. The pipe-fish 

 and sea-horses are draped and ragged, and 

 splashed with yellow and brown, the slugs are 

 simply flaccid stems or leaves, and the crabs are 

 beyond behef, living bits of weed. Some are 

 clear yellow, others are mottled, others again 

 have white enameled spots like the small masses 

 of tiny shells. The little shrimps are mere 

 ghosts of life, transparent, yielding to every 

 movement of the water — altogether marvelous. 

 Then there are other beings, blue like the sea, 

 white like the foam, or translucent bits of dis- 

 embodied organs. This is all absorbingly won- 

 derful, but the unreahty of this little world's 

 existence, the remembrance of its instability is 



