100 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Apr 
the hurrying tide has cut a channel away. Away to the 
right is a marvelous picture of purple and slate grey in- 
tertwining and intermingling. The transformation is 
caused by a coarse sea-weed which thickly covers the bot- 
tom. On every side are patches of vandyke brown. Be- 
ware of them, as they reveal the whereabouts of the dan- 
gerous coral shoals. In front is a broad sheet of yellow 
brown, which indicates a rocky bar. You are going to this 
bar, as it is the home of the sponge zoophytes and num- 
berless other forms of marine animals. The fresh trade- 
wind is blowing, and has stirred up a short, lively sea; 
the mimic waves are dancing and leaping and tossing 
their foam-covered crests. 
Although the water is transparent, yet its rapid and 
continuous movement prevents your seeing the objects on 
the bottom clearly. You may make out their form, but 
the objects appear also to be in motion, and it is impos- 
sible to recognize them. Fortunately the disturbance is 
only on the surface. 
Now you take up your magic glass, place it on rt wa- 
ter and immerse its glass-covered end a few inches, and 
look. Whata wondrous revelation. A wide radius of 
bottom clearly shown, and the objects lying or growing 
on it are distinctly seen and magnified. This combined 
effect of water and glass forms a lens of great magnify- 
ing power. Many of you have observed a similar mag- 
nifying effect on fish when swimming in a glass globe 
filled with water. 
The water glass magnifies with so much power that a 
five cent piece lying on the bottom twenty feet down can 
easily be seen. : 
Through the magic glass a new and beautiful world is 
revealed to your enraptured gaze. The rocky bottom is 
everywhere covered with lovely forms of marine life. 
Gorgeous Gorgonias, yellow and purple, fan-shaped or 
long-plumed and fernlike,waving and swaying with every 
