102 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
any of us. A little appreciation on our part proved a wonder- 
ful incentive to him, as it does to most of us. 
And it was surely a delight to see him dive. I will not forget 
one occasion when we were collecting in this way near the reefs 
off Hastings. The boat drifts slowly over the marvellously 
clear water. Looking down through the water-glass we see the 
fronds of plumose aleyonaria waving gently in the lazy undu- 
lations of the sea, or bent gracefully by the current, looking like 
fields of pampas grass in a breeze. In the intervals between 
these the great rosettes of Isopora palmata lie motionless, inter- 
spersed with heads of brain coral; while the smaller clumps of 
Eusmilia look like daisies starring the bottom. Great ‘‘hat 
sponges’’ and many others of brighter hues almost pave the 
bottom here and there, while groups of gorgeously colored trop- 
icial fishes glide gracefully among the groves of gorgonians. A 
world of silent beauty, bathed in a crystal clear atmosphere of 
water! We see an apparently new colony of alcyonarian coral 
and point it out to our diver. Grappling hook in hand, he 
stands for an instant like a bronze statue of the perfect physi- 
cal man, the massive muscles of his chest, back and arms bule- 
ing and rippling beneath a smooth brown skin, his intent rugged 
face set with determination,—a sight that would delight a mas- 
ter sculptor! 
A clean dive and he disappears. We bend over the water- 
glass and follow his descent as he swims downward with easy 
powerful strokes of his long arms and legs. The water does 
not appear deep, so clear is it; but down, down he goes, the 
white soles of his feet standing out in sharp relief. Smaller 
and smaller he seems, diminishing in size until but a pigmy 
man is outlined against the white coral bottom. He is in fact 
some sixty feet beneath us. He swims head downward and 
hovers over the fronded alcyonarian, grasps it, fastens his 
short, two-pronged hook and tugs desperately to loosen its stub- 
born hold on a coral head. Suddenly it breaks loose and he 
swims upward, increasing rapidly in size until his round black 
head breaks the surface and he tugs the specimen, man high, to 
the boat. We earefully lft it in while Albert raises himself 
easily over the side and sits panting on the gunwale. The aleyon- 
arian, so graceful and clear-cut while in the water is but a 
