GARDEN OF CORAL 137 



to the spot, betrays that here is the centre of independent 

 life and motive. The dwarf, unkempt weeds cloak a meek, 

 weak, shrinking crab, whose frail claws and tufted legs are 

 breeched with muddy moss, and whose oddly-shaped body 

 is obscured by parasitic vegetation and realistic counterfeits 

 thereof. Inspection, however critical, makes no satisfactory 

 definition between the real and the artijlicial algae, so per- 

 fectly do the details of the moving marine garden blend 

 with the fringes and fur of the animal's rugged and mis- 

 shapen figure and deformed limbs. As an artistic finish to 

 a marvellous piece of mummery, in one of the crude green 

 claws is carried a fragment of coral, green with the mould 

 of the sea. It and the claw are indistinguishable until, in 

 the faintest spasm of fright, the crab abandons the coral, 

 and shrinking within itself becomes inanimate — as steadfast 

 a patch of weeds as any other of the reef. Recovering 

 slowly from its fright, and conscious of the necessity for 

 each detail of its equipment and insignia, the lowly 

 crustacean timidly re-grips the coral, and holding it aloft, 

 glides discreetly on its way, invisible when stationary, most 

 difficult to detect when it moves. 



To see the coral garden to advantage you must pass over 

 it — not through it. Drifting idly in a boat in a calm clear 

 day, when the tips of the tallest shrubs are submerged but a 

 foot or so, and all the delicate filaments, which are invisible 

 or lie flat and flaccid when the tide is out, are waving, 

 twisting and twining, then the spectacle is at its best. 

 Tiny fish, glowing like jewels, flash and dart among the 

 intricate interlacing branches, or quiveringly poise about 

 some slender point — humming-birds of the sea, sipping their 

 nectar. A pink translucent fish no greater than a lead- 

 pencil wriggles in and out of the lemon-coloured coral. 

 Another of the John Dory shape, but scarcely an inch 

 long, blue as a sapphire with gold fins and gold-tipped 

 tail, hovers over a miniature blue-black cave. A shoal darts 

 out, some all old-gold, some green with yellow damascene 

 tracery and long yellow filaments floating from the lower 

 lip. A slender form, half coral pink, half grey, that might 



