120 Big Game Fisbes 



heard far away. Out from the reef the water 

 deepened so quickly that fifty feet to the east it 

 was twenty feet deep and the bottom rapidly fell 

 away, merging into the deep water of the Gulf 

 Stream. In the shallows were many large heads 

 of coral, some like huge vases, hollowed out, the 

 homes of angel and other highly colored fishes, 

 while the floor of the reef was covered with a 

 forest of waving plumes of gorgonias, massive 

 seatlike sponges and other forms. There were 

 rich yellow reticulated sea-fans, three feet in 

 height, with beautiful yellow shells clinging to 

 them. Others were of the richest lavender hue, 

 while here and there were plume-shaped forms 

 in brown plush tints, long branchlike shapes in 

 black, lavender, and yellow. Beneath these was a 

 carpet of low-growing algae, and patches of fan 

 coral in large palmate branches of a rich olive 

 hue, with round heads and clumps of branch 

 coral everywhere, forming a garden in the sea of 

 marvellous beauty. 



Not far away a fine large ship had gone down, 

 and part of the hull lay in this garden spot in 

 deep water, while the rest, tossed by the hurricane 

 like chaff over the sharp teeth of the reef, lay in 

 the smooth shallow water of the lagoon. Peering 



