120 Big Game Fishes 
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 alge, 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 
