58 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



threatened either entirely to submerge us or to ^yash us 

 clean oS our patch of coral. It also allowed one occasion- 

 ally to dive off the edge of it to explore at shorter range 

 some particularly tempting colony of polypes which grew 

 down below at its base ; or even to make a perfectly 

 futile attempt, while under water, to dab wildly with the 

 landing-net at the shoals of variegated fish which dashed 

 in and out of the great submarine cavern-like spaces. 

 But although the water was so deliciously warm that we 

 could have stayed in it all day long, this sort of thing 

 was too fearful a joy not to have its drawbacks. We 

 liad forgotten the sun, which, while we were busy watching 

 the fairy scenes below, crouching the while upon our 

 insecure and slippery platforms of living coral, had been 

 busy too upon our backs. We realized it well enough and 

 painfully enough later on, when we discovered that this 

 part of our body was the colour of a boiled lobster and 

 a mass of large watery blebs, the result of sunburn. But 

 everything has its price, and I do not think we really 

 grudged this one that the coral reefs extorted. 



One lives and learns by unpleasant experiences, which 

 are, after all, often sweet to look back upon ; and even 

 when in our innocence we picked up with our fingers a 

 marine worm-like creature, which lived in the crevices 

 of the rock, and which was covered with long, silky -white 

 hairs like glistening spun-glass, and got badly stung for 

 our pains, I do not think the worm could have objected 

 so very much to what we said in our haste about it ; for 

 it must have felt that it had much the better of the 

 encounter, even though it had found itself crammed into 

 the crowded space of our collecting bottle. The sting 

 from this worm lasted for the best part of two dajrs, due 

 to the fact that the ends of the glass-like glistening hairs 

 break off sharp after penetrating the skin. 



One has sometimes, however, a far more unpleasant 

 companion while swimming about these lagoons, and it 

 is well to be aware of it, for it is a real danger and more 

 to be feared, according to the islanders, than the ever 



