Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/570

566 of the gorgonias; sea fans in purple splendor; coral heads of gold and green; great splotches of colored sponges encrusting the rocks; the soft seaweeds; here and there deep channels with nothing but the clear water and the white sand beneath it; and in and out among this maze of growing things, the graceful, noiseless fishes in such array of colors as is scarcely credible, much less describable. I believe it may be truly said that one who has never seen such a tropical sea-garden

can not have the remotest idea of its charm. There was only one consideration that could reconcile me to the wanton work of collecting these beautiful things and robbing them of all their native charm; that was the fact that, work as diligently as we might, we could not deface one in a thousand of these fascinating spots. I think there is no other single experience I would willingly exchange for this; and yet I recall one other, of a somewhat different nature, that made a