THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



deepening as it extended south, where the wreck of a large ship 

 marked its limit, then making a turn to the west it cidminated 

 in Bush Key. A large part of this was but two or three feet in 

 depth at low tide and covered with groves of branch coral — a, 

 radiant marine forest ia rich ohve tints — cut by winding channels 

 through which I could walk or swim or scull my boat. The 

 entire north end of the lagoon was of clear white sand with here 

 and there patches of a low algae which gave shelter to various 

 shells and at night was the browsing-ground of a multitudinous 

 host of crayfishes. Every day I sailed, rowed or poled my light 

 boat over this dreamland of the sea as here were the ' gulfs 

 enchanted.' At times, ia extraordinary tides, the tops of all 

 the corals were exposed and the long barrier of dead coral rock 

 was seen. It was a delight to go out, shod in thick wading shoes 

 impervious to the jagged coral heads, and walk over it. Every 

 rock was the home of countless strange and often beautiful ani- 

 mals. Here the brown coTvrie made its home, the scarlet fan 

 shell, and myriads of worms which vied with the flowers in the 

 beauty of their breathing organs. Groves of vivid yellow gor- 

 gonias were within reach, some garbed in lavender, others like 

 the pltmies of the ostrich of a deep velvet-like brown, all pre- 

 senting a scene challenging the brush of the painter, or the verse 

 of the poet to describe their beauty. 



This ianer lagoon with the white floor could be reached by 

 channels from various sides, and for some reason was a favourite 

 feeding ground of the fishes. On dark nights we frequently had 

 a crew of negroes row us out, or I would drift on the lagoon ia 

 my own boat and watch the dark forms of strange fishes change 

 the calm sea into a seething caldron of light, due to the presence 

 in the warm water of hosts of phosphorescent NoctUucae and jelly- 

 fishes of infinite variety. 



At such times the stiag rays of several varieties, and occasion- 

 ally the great manta, the colossus of the tribe, came in. 

 One of the latter leaped so near our boat one night that we beat 

 a precipitous retreat. A ton or two of animated manta would 

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