[Illustration: THE BOTTOM OF THE LAGOON.]
To the student of marine life a coral reef is full of interest, and that of Tahiti is one of the finest in the world. Here are some of the curious things that were described by our friends:
"We saw," said Frank, "some enormous starfish with fifteen arms covered with sharp spines of a gray and orange color. These spines were on the top of the arms; the bottom had an array of yellow feelers like fingers, with suckers at the ends. The boatmen cautioned us not to touch these creatures, but their caution was not needed, as we all kept our hands at a respectful distance.
[Illustration: SEA-ANEMONE AND HERMIT CRAB.]
"There were thousands and thousands of sea-urchins, some of them with spikes as large as your fingers and stiff as a nail, down to little fellows the size of a pigeon's egg, and armed with long needles like the quills of a porcupine. It is no joke to step on one of these things when you are bathing in the sea and have your feet unprotected. Somebody has likened them to thistles, and says they more or less resemble hedgehogs and porcupines. Urchin, according to the dictionary, means hedgehog, and therefore the name is not inappropriate.
"There are sea-anemones as large as a cheese, and of all the colors you can imagine. An amusing thing about them was that a lot of little fishes, not more than two inches long, were playing hide and seek, swimming around among the spines of these huge polyps. The water is very clear, and as you look over the side of the boat into the garden of coral with its great variety of colors, and its numerous inhabitants, finny, shelly, and otherwise, it is like a glimpse of fairy-land.
"It made our flesh creep just a little to see the water-snakes coiling around the branches of coral, and gliding about all unconscious of being gazed at. Then there are gold-fish, blue-fish (not the blue-fish of America, but a little fellow of the brightest sky-blue you ever saw), fish of a pale green, and so on through all the scale of colors. As they swam among the corals they reminded us of butterflies in a garden."
[Illustration: HERMIT-CRAB AND SEA-SHELL.]
Fred saw a shell travelling along in a most unexpected way, which he could not understand until he ascertained that it was occupied by a hermit-crab. Then there were large crabs in their own shells, and also lobsters, which kept a sharp eye out for danger, and retired to places of security when the boat approached.