The Island Home

by Richard Archer

  CHAPTER NINETEEN.

  THE CORAL REEF.

  JOHNNY AND THE CHAMA--AMATEUR PEARL-DIVING--A SHARK BLOCKADE--CULINARYGENIUS.

  "Down in the depths of the lonely sea, I work at my mystic masonry; I've crusted the plants of the deep with stone, And given them colouring not their own; And now o'er the ocean fields they spread Their fan-like branches of white and red: Oh! who can fashion a work like me, The mason of God, in the boundless sea."

  Late in the afternoon, when the slanting beams of the sun began to losetheir fierceness, and the heat was tempered by the breeze setting infrom the ocean, we descended to the beach, and set out for the easternside of the island, in accordance with Arthur's suggestion, mentioned atthe close of the last chapter. As we made our way across Sea-bird'sPoint, the clamorous cries of the gannets, raising their harsh voices tothe highest pitch, in angry remonstrance against this invasion of theirdomain, were almost deafening. They might well be alarmed for thesafety of their nests--or rather of their eggs, which they lay upon thebare ground, without any attempt at a nest--for they strewed the wholepoint so thickly that it was no easy matter to pick one's way withouttreading upon them at every alternate step. In nearly every tree wereto be seen the rude nests of the frigate-bird, built of a few coarsesticks; and numbers of the birds themselves, with their singularblood-red pouches inflated to the utmost extent, were flying in from thesea. The large sooty tern, the graceful tropic bird, and the spruce,fierce-looking man-of-war's hawk, with his crimson bill, and blackflashing eye, flew familiarly around us, frequently coming so near, thatwe could easily have knocked them down with our cutlasses, had we beeninclined to abuse, so wantonly, the confidence which they seemed torepose in us.

  When half-way across the point, I came suddenly upon a magnificent maletropic bird, sitting in his nest behind a tussock of tall, reedy grass.He did not offer to quit his post, even when the others approached verynear, and paused to admire him; being apparently engaged, in the absenceof his mate, in attending to certain domestic duties, generally supposedto belong more appropriately to her. He was somewhat larger than apigeon, and was a very beautiful bird, though not so brilliantlycoloured as several other species of sea-fowl. His plumage, soft andlustrous as satin, was of a delicate pearly grey, except the longmiddle-feathers of the tail, which were of a pale red, and projectedfull a foot and a half beyond the rest. He manifested not the slightestfear, even when Johnny stooped and stroked his glossy coat. Just as weleft the spot, the partner of this exemplary bird arrived, and hastenedto relieve him from duty, giving him notice to quit, by two or threequick, impatient chirps, and a playful peck upon the head, whereupon heresigned his place, into which the other immediately settled, with asoft, complacent, cooing note, as expressive of perfect content as thepurring of a well-fed tabby, stretched cosily upon the earth-rug beforea cheerful winter evening fire. This transfer was effected so quickly,that Johnny was baffled in an ill-bred attempt which he made to pry intothe domestic concerns of the affectionate pair, and he could not geteven a transient glimpse of the contents of the nest.

  Without permitting ourselves to be tempted into any further deviation ordelay, we kept steadily along the beach, until we arrived, a littlebefore sunset, at the spot where the yawl lay, drawn up on the sand,opposite the islet.

  Max declared that after our long march, we ought to have a supperconsisting of something more substantial than cocoa-nuts, and proposedthat we should pull over to the reef, and procure some shell-fish, whichproposition meeting with general approval, we got the boat into thewater, and in five minutes reached the inside of the ledge, and landedupon it at a point about a quarter of a mile from the opening, throughwhich we had first entered the lagoon. In this place, it was somefifteen or twenty yards in width, and consisted of a seamed and brokenflat of dead coral, elevated but slightly above the level of the sea.Though there was no wind, and had been none during the day, the mightybillows of the open ocean came rolling in upon the outer edge of thereef with their accustomed violence. The action of the trade-winds isupon the whole so steady and uniform, that when it does cease for shortperiods, its effects continue, and upon the windward side of thesecoral-belted islands, there are breakers that never cease to rage, evenin the calmest weather. No sight could be more grand and imposing, thanthat of these enormous waves encountering the reef. One of them wouldsometimes extend along it a mile, or a mile and a half, in an unbrokenline. As it sweeps onward, with a slow and majestic movement toweringup, like a dark-blue mountain, it seems as if nothing could resist itspower, and you almost tremble lest the solid barrier upon which youstand should be hurled from its foundations. It meets the curving lineof the reef with a tremendous concussion, and thus suddenly arrested bythe parapet of coral, reared from the depths of the sea, it rises atonce, throughout its entire length, to the height of twelve or fifteenfeet perpendicularly, and stands for a moment as if congealed in itsprogress; then breaking with a hollow roar, it falls in a deluge of foamand spray, filling all the seams and crevices, and marking their coursein lines of white upon the dark ground of the ledge. Not the leaststriking feature of the spectacle, was the multitude of fishes, of allshapes, colours, and sizes, that could be seen suspended in the face ofthis liquid wall, the very moment before it fell. How they escapedbeing thrown upon the reef seemed inexplicable, but they darted hitherand thither at the very edge of the roller, with the greatest apparentease and security, and almost invariably turned sea-ward just in time tosave themselves. Occasionally, however, some careless or unskilfulindividual, not sufficiently versed in this perilous kind of navigation,suffered shipwreck, and was left gasping and floundering upon the coral.

  While thus engaged in watching the bursting of the waves upon the reef,I suddenly heard Johnny at a little distance calling out lustily forhelp, and hastening to the spot, I found him in one of the yawningcrevices of the coral rock, up to his neck in water, and strugglingviolently to get out, in which he seemed to meet with opposition fromsome object in the hole.

  "Something has got me by the feet," he cried, as soon as he saw me; "itis an enormous oyster, or a shell-fish of some kind, and it pinchesdreadfully."

  I looked down into the water, and saw what in fact, seemed to be agigantic shell-fish, gripping both his legs: it retained its hold sotenaciously, that I found I could not extricate him, and when Arthurcame up, as he did in a moment, it was as much as we could both do, tolift him and his singular captor, which still clung obstinately to him,out of the crevice. We were then obliged to pry open the shells withour cutlasses before we could release him.

  Arthur pronounced this extraordinary shell-fish, to be a specimen of the"Chama Gigas." The shells were nearly three feet in length, andcuriously marked and clouded. Johnny had slipped from the slimy edge ofthe chasm, and happened to fall fairly into the expanded jaws of thechama, which, had instantly closed upon him. If the water had beendeeper, the consequences might have been serious, as there are instancesof persons being drowned, by having their feet caught in the vice-likegrip of this formidable bivalve.

  Not far from the scene of Johnny's mishap, was a green spot upon thereef, where a group of young trees seemed to spring up out of the barecoral. On approaching the place, we found that a little island, aboutthe size of Palm-islet was there in process of formation.Notwithstanding the exposed and barren character of the locality, andthe scantiness of the soil, which was not anywhere a foot in depth. Itwas covered with a thrifty vegetation, among which were severalwell-grown-palms, a group of young casuarinas, and some ferns andtournefortias. Nor was this embryo islet destitute of inhabitants. Thetrees were at this hour filled with aquatic birds, and I observed amongthem one remarkable species, long-bodied, and slender, like swallows,with red bills and feet, white breast, and slate-coloured wings; these,instead of perching, like the rest of their feathered associates, uponthe trees, nestled in the concavity of the long palm-leaves, far enoughfrom the stem, to be rocked gently by the undulating motion of the leaf,which a
breath of wind, or the slightest stirring of the birds in theseswinging nets was sufficient to produce. But by far the most numerousand singular portion of the population of the islet, consisted of aspecies of large land-crab, inhabiting burrows hollowed out beneath theroots of the trees. Great numbers of them appeared to be bathing orsporting in the shallow water on the lagoon side of the islet, but, atsight of us, they scrambled off to their burrows with a degree ofagility that could hardly have been expected from such clumsy-lookingcreatures. Owing partly to this unlooked-for rapidity of locomotion,and partly to a natural shyness and hesitation which we felt abouthandling them rashly, (their pincer-like jaws, with half a dozen pairsof which each individual seemed to be provided, having a ratherformidable appearance), they escaped before we could capture even aspecimen. Johnny forthwith posted himself in ambush among a bunch offern, and riveting his eyes upon one of the burrows at the foot of ayoung cocoa-nut tree, waited impatiently for the crabs to venture forthonce more. In a few moments a patriarchal-looking old fellow emergedcautiously from the hole, and was presently followed by several more.Johnny prudently delayed any hostile movement, until they should get farenough from their place of security to enable him to cut off theirretreat; and, in the meantime, I was greatly amused and interested inobserving the ingenious method, in which the patriarch commencedoperating upon a cocoa-nut, which had fallen to the ground near his den.

  Managing his complicated apparatus of claws with surprising dexterity,he seized the nut, and stripped off the outer husk in a twinkling; thensetting it upon one end, he began to hammer away at the orifices throughwhich the stalk and root of the future tree make their way when the nutgerminates. Having at length removed the filling up of these orifices,he inserted a claw, and actually split the strong inner shell, dividingit neatly into halves. At this stage of the proceedings, half a dozengreedy neighbours, who had been looking on, without offering a helpingclaw, shuffled nimbly forward to share the spoil, and it was curious tosee how quickly they cleaned out the shell, leaving not a particle ofthe kernel. Johnny seized this as a favourable moment for a sally, andrushed forth cutlass in hand, having adopted the discreet resolution ofdisabling them, by lopping off those formidable claws, before coming toclose quarters. The sally, however, was premature, and proved entirelyunsuccessful, for the crabs backed and sidled into their burrows withsuch expedition, that the last of them disappeared before theirassailant could get within reach. Leaving Johnny to renew hisambuscade, if so disposed, I proceeded along the reef, and found Max andBrowne bathing for the second time that day. They had discovered acharming place for the purpose, where a kind of oval basin was formed bythe lagoon setting into the inside of the reef. The water was deep andclear, so that there was no danger of wounding the feet by means ofshells or corals. Max had discovered what he supposed to be an enormouspearl-oyster, attached to a wall of coral, at the depth of five or sixfathoms, and they were diving for it alternately. Both succeeded inreaching it, but it adhered so firmly to the rock by its strong beard,that neither of the amateur pearl-divers could tear it off, and gettingsoon exhausted and out of breath, they abandoned the attempt.

  The submarine scenery of the lagoon was in this spot unusually variedand beautiful, and the basin formed a bath, fit for the Nereidsthemselves. Numbers of different kinds of shell-fish were attached tothe coral branches, or wedged into their interstices. Others werefeeding, and reflected the brightest colours with every motion. Purplemullet, variegated rock-fish, and small ray-fish, were darting aboutnear the bottom. Another species of mullet, of a splendid changeableblue and green, seemed to be feeding upon the little polyps protrudingfrom the coral tops. Shells, sea-plants, coral, and fishes, and theslightest movement of the latter, even to the vibration of a tiny fin!or the gentle opening of the gills in respiration, could be seen withperfect distinctness in this transparent medium. But what chieflyattracted attention, was the gay tints, and curious shapes, of theinnumerable zoophytes, or "flower animals," springing up from the sidesand bottom of the basin, and unfolding their living leaves above theirlimestone trunks or stems which encased them. Blue, red, pink, orange,purple, and green, were among the colours, and the variety of patternsseemed absolutely endless: they mimicked, in their manner of growth, thefoliage of trees, the spreading antlers of the stag, globes, columns,stars, feathery plumes, trailing vines, and all the wildest and mostgraceful forms of terrestrial vegetation. Nothing was wanting tocomplete this submarine shrubbery, even to the minutest details; therewere mosses, and ferns, and lichens, and spreading shrubs, and branchingtrees; bunches of slender thread-like stems, swaying gently with themotion of the water, might, (except for their pale, purplish, tint),pass for rushes, or tussocks of reedy grass; and it required no effortof the imagination to see fancifully shaped wild-flowers in the numerousvarieties of actiniae, or sea anemones, many of which bore the closestresemblance to wood-pinks, asters, and carnations. The imitations ofthese flowers were in some cases wonderfully perfect, even to theirdelicate petals, which were represented by the slender, fringe-liketentacles of the living polyp, protruding from its cell. Besides thesecounterparts of land vegetation, there were waving sea-fans, solidmasses of sponge-coral, clubs of Hercules, madrepores, likeelegantly-formed vases filled with flowers, dome-like groups ofastraeae, studded with green and purple spangles, and a thousand othershapes, so fantastic and peculiar, that they can be likened to no otherobjects in nature.

  Johnny having got tired of lying in wait for the crabs, came to watchthe swimmers and search for shells. In the course of frequent beachexcursions with Mr Frazer, he had picked up the names, and chiefdistinguishing characteristics of the principal genera of marine shells,in consequence of which he had at length come to regard himself as quitea conchologist, and was ambitious of making a "collection," like othernaturalists, in which design Arthur encouraged and assisted him.

  Joining me, where I was lying upon a flat ledge, peering down into thebasin, he presently espied a Triton's trumpet, more than a foot inlength, in some five fathoms of water, and pointing it out to Max, hebegged him to dive for it, earnestly assuring him that he had never seenso fine a specimen of the "Murex Tritonica." But the latter verydecidedly declined sacrificing his breath in the cause of science,declaring that he had completely exhausted himself by his exertions inpearl-diving.

  Eiulo coming up at the moment with a number of shell-fish which he hadobtained, Johnny appealed to him for aid, and not in vain, for as soonas the much-coveted shell was pointed out to him, he threw off hiswrapper, and plunging into the water, almost instantly returned with it.Max now showed him the supposed pearl-oyster, and challenged him tomake an attempt to bring it up. Eiulo laughed, and nodded hisacceptance of the challenge: after pausing a moment to take breath, hedived perpendicularly downward, reaching the shell easily with a fewstrokes, and made one or two vigorous but ineffectual jerks at it; then,just as I thought him about to give it up, and ascend again, he graspedit with both hands, brought his feet under him, and bracing himselffirmly against the wall of coral, he wrenched it off, and bore the prizein triumph to the surface. It proved to be a pearl-oyster, as Max hadsupposed, and on being opened was found to contain eleven seed-pearls.Eiulo presented the shell and its contents to Johnny, who seemed tovalue the former, quite as much as the latter, and presently ran off insearch of Arthur, to inquire whether it should properly be classed withthe "genus ostrea," or the "genus mytilus."

  After watching the swimmers a little longer, I strolled along the reef,in the direction which Johnny had taken in pursuit of Arthur, stoppingoccasionally to watch the bursting of a wave of uncommon magnitude, orto examine some of the interesting objects that were strewn with suchprofusion in every direction, and which rendered that barren ledge sochoice a spot for the studies of the naturalist. Some ten or fifteenminutes had been thus employed, and it was beginning to grow dark, sothat Arthur and Johnny, whom I had not yet overtaken, could be but justdistinguished, like two specks in the distance, when I heard thepowe
rful voice of Browne, raised in a loud and prolonged halloo.Pausing to listen, I soon heard the cry repeated, in a manner thatshowed as I thought, that something unusual had taken place. Hasteningback, I found that Max and Browne had swum off to a coral knoll, in thelagoon, a stone's throw from the reef, and dared not venture back, beingclosely blockaded by a large fish swimming about near the spot, whichthey supposed to be a shark. They called loudly for me to come afterthem in the boat, and to lose no time about it, as there was waterenough on the knoll, to enable a shark, if tolerably enterprising, toreach them where they stood. Though it was rapidly getting dark, therewas still sufficient light to enable me to distinguish an enormous fishof some kind, cruising back and forth, with the regularity of a sentinelon duty, between the reef, and the shallow where Max and Browne werestanding up to their knees in water. The case appeared to admit of nodelay, and jumping into the boat, I pulled over to the coral patch withall possible speed, passing the fish close enough to see that it was infact a large shark, and he proved also to be an exceedingly fierce andravenous one. It almost seemed as though he understood my errand, forhe followed, or rather attended me, closely, keeping so near the bow ofthe boat that it was with great difficulty and some danger, that I atlength got the blockaded swimmers aboard. When this was effected, hisdisappointment and consequent bad temper were quite apparent; he swamround and round the boat in the most disturbed and agitated manner as wereturned, making a variety of savage demonstrations, and finally goingso far as to snap spitefully at the oars, which he did not discontinue,until Browne had two or three times rapped him smartly over the nose.After landing in safety, Max pelted him with shells and pieces of coralrock, until he finally swam off.

  Meantime, Arthur and Johnny had returned from their wandering along thereef; the latter had come across another colony of crabs, and hadsucceeded in capturing three of them, or rather two and a half, forhaving, as he fondly imagined, disabled one enormous fellow by hackinghim in two with his cutlass, the one half had scrambled into the hole,while Johnny was securing the other.

  We now placed the chama shells, the crabs, and other shell-fish,together with Johnny's specimens, to which he had added a splendidmadrepore vase, in the boat, and as soon as the swimmers were dressed,we pulled over to Palm-islet. Here we arranged a tent in the samemanner as we had done on the memorable night when we first reached theseshores. Max then kindled a fire, and prepared to cook our supper. Theshell-fish were easily managed by placing them upon the embers, but thecrabs, which it was necessary to boil, and which were of the size ofsmall lobsters, presented a more difficult case. Max's culinary genius,however, stimulated by a keen appetite, eventually triumphed over everyobstacle. He procured a number of stones, which he heated in the fire;then filling one of the deep and rounded chama shells with water, heproceeded to drop the heated stones into it, using a couple of sticks asa pair of tongs. This process he continued until the water boiled, whenhe remorselessly plunged the unhappy crabs therein, and from time totime dropped in more of the heated stones, until the cookery wascomplete.