Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/564

560 the organized parties. Regular excursions were arranged for nearly every day, except Sundays; frequently two in a day, and sometimes two by sea and one by land. As far as practicable shore collecting and coral 'nipping' on the reefs were planned for the low-tide hours of the day and dredging for other times.

One of the places most frequently visited by land conveyance was Hungry Bay, on the south shore nearly opposite Hamilton. The entrance to the bay is narrow and rocky, yet a great variety of animals are blown in by the southerly winds, and the place has thus become a rich collecting ground. The loose and porous rocks just inside the

entrance on either shore afford hiding places for great numbers of worms and other invertebrates. Upon turning over these rocks the bottom seems alive with creatures of many kinds. Only half the booty is seen, however, unless the rocks are broken into fragments. Thus are set free boring mollusks, annelids and many other forms that find protection, or a lair, in the holes and tortuous passages of this porous, honeycombed limestone.

In many places the floor of the shallower parts of the bay is covered by a large tubularian hydroid, in others, where the current