CAYO HUT I A AND THE REEF 61 



"human amphibian." Inside the true reef, any 

 object upon the bottom that was fixed too solidly 

 for us to detach, he would secure by going down 

 and wrenching it loose. He crawled along the 

 bottom, examined into crevices, and extracted all 

 manner of creatures that had taken refuge in 

 such retreats. We had all flattered ourselves that 

 when it came to diving for things we were not 

 altogether inefficient, but we stood humbled before 

 this aquatic man. We at once conceived a new 

 respect and admiration for the Patron in whose 

 own environment of jungle and sea we city dwellers 

 could only make pretense. 



Our experiments with the copper sulphate in 

 open water turned out well, and by it many of 

 the brilliant little fishes were stupefied and 

 driven into our nets. While working about these 

 coral heads in water, chest deep, we were at 

 first amused and then annoyed by a gentle heave 

 of the sea which persisted in lifting us off our 

 feet and redepositing us just a few inches away 

 from the positions carefully taken for best 

 capturing our game. Again and again, when all 

 was set to receive our desired specimen escaping 

 from some crevice, a scarcely perceptible swell 



