i6o 
SOMERSET 
CHAP. 
his great size. He seemed to be sniffing round them. 
They only splashed the water at him, and he thought 
better of it and went off. Once only was a shark 
known to attack a man and to bite him badly when he 
was diving for fish. 
These islands teem with life, it is everywhere ; every 
pore bursts with it, above and below — flying, burrowing, 
creeping, crawling, swimming, — and yet how little we 
seem to know of the great mystic drama of it all. Out 
in the rocks, in the deep clear pools, over slippery sea- 
weeds and countless barnacles, were wonderful sea- 
urchins and anemones of every shape and colour, like 
beautiful living flowers, and there are treasure-houses of 
shells, corallines, and sponges. 
Crabs and lobsters, shrimps, and vividly-coloured fish 
darted in and out of the crevices of the rocks, a yellow 
water-snake slid away from close under my feet and hid 
himself under some green ribbon-like seaweed, and I 
jumped so quickly in getting out of his way that I 
came backwards with a great splash into a deep pool 
behind me, to the intense amusement of my dusky 
friends, who never tumble, and are highly amused when 
you get pricked with the spines of sea-urchins, or stung by 
stinging creatures that you remember for many hours 
after. A bright blue crab scuttling away into a cave 
all lined with coral, the home of these countless boring 
creatures, attracted me, so did an old anchor half im- 
bedded in the rock, scarred and rugged all over. 
The natives ate shell-fish that they picked up, but I 
received them with caution, such digestive powers as 
they possess being denied to a white woman. Glossy- 
backed cormorants leisurely eyed us from the pinnacles 
above, and hundreds of sea-gulls flew over us uttering 
their shrill sad cries as they swooped, wheeled, and 
poised on their quivering wings. 
