56 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



thought that the " laird " might be mistaken. On such 

 occasions of misgiving it is strange how one's toes seem 

 to feel such a very long way down. 



A much queerer sensation w^as felt in diving from the 

 top of the gangway ladder, a matter of perhaps twelve 

 feet or so above the w^ater. As one stood for a moment, 

 preliminary to taking a dive, the sea-bottom was so 

 start lingly visible that the water between you and it, 

 fully fifty feet deep as it must have been, seemed simply 

 non-existent ; and as you plunged in you had a momentary 

 sensation of having deliberately hurled yourself head first 

 on to the hard bottom far beneath you. 



Inside the httle barrier reef the water of the lagoon, 

 even on rough days, w^as as smooth as glass. To get into 

 the lagoon one had to row round between the eastern 

 end of the reef and a little bush-grown rocky promontory, 

 which jutted out seawards and guarded the bay from the 

 easterly swell. 



The lagoon in its small way fulfilled all the conditions 

 of what a lagoon should be. It was full of wonderfully 

 coloured fish and various forms of living coral. Upon 

 the bare water-worn sides of some of the more massive 

 forms of coral, from which the actual poljrpes had long 

 since disappeared, lived, among other fascinating objects, 

 hosts of sea-urchins with the longest spines we had ever 

 seen ; some of them were six inches or more in length. 

 The deep water at the foot of the rock}^ promontory 

 was the home of giant cray-fish of a most alluring flavour. 

 NulHpores, millepores, sea-fans, sea-anemones, every- 

 thing in fact both strange and beautiful which appertains 

 to an enchanted sea-garden of this description Hved and 

 flourished in this small lagoon. 



No sooner had the dinghy carried you across it, and 

 landed with a gentle grate upon the sandy beach, than you 

 had an irresistible desire to be playing at " desert islands." 

 You felt that you must immediately set to work to build 

 a hut, look for turtles' eggs, or catch fish for your dinner 

 from the rocky headland. Behind you were the woods 



