Part 28 (1/2)

Colin shuddered a little as he looked at the groupers swi idly about and said:

”Don't you suppose it was just because there were so rouper would attack anything as large as a dog out in the open sea They're much the same sort of fish as bass, you know”

”No, sir,” the keeper answered; ”I never 'eard of a grouper bein'

dangerous out at sea But there is a fish that's very bad around the coral on the reef”

”You mean sharks?” Colin queried

”No, sir,” the keeper answered; ”sharks ain't no fish”

Colin elevated his eyebrows a little at this soed to a lower order of marine species than any other fish, but he let it pass unchallenged

”What fish do you mean, then?” asked the boy

”Not sharks,” the keeper replied; ”there ain't no sharks near Berh The reefs run ten mile out and they never come away inside 'ere No, sir, it's the htfully ”Seereen? It's called the green moray?”

”Yes, sir; that's the fish But there's reen ones”

”But that's hardly more a fish than a shark is,” objected Colin ”Isn't a moray a kind of eel?”

”Yes, sir, but an eel's a fish Leastways so I was always told, when I used to work over at the Aquariuood-huht about it Go ahead and tell me about the moray”

”I was just sayin', sir, that they were the only ugly things around Bermuda And they stay quite a bit from shore out around the coral atolls You see lots of 'eardens They 'ides in 'oles of the rocks and strikes out at other fishes like a snake I knew a diver once, as goin' down after speciarden boats, and was nearly drowned”

”How?” queried Colin a little incredulously ”The -bell”

”No, sir,--no, sir,--not through the diving-bell But the india-rubber tube that put air into the 'elin' past a 'ole in a rock in which a six-foot , and 'e darted out at it”

”Did he bite it through?” cried Colin

”No, sir; a moray's teeth ain't set that way 'Is teeth set backwards so they 'old anything solid 'E started to s the tube, the moray did, and jerked the diver on 'is back so that 'e couldn't pull the signal-cord 'E would have been drowned sure, for 'e was forty feet down, but the water was so clear that some one on board the boat saw the fish attack 'im, and they pulled 'iin' on,” was the reply; ”'e wouldn't let go, and by the tien, the fish 'ad chewed up the air-tube pretty well But that wasn't the worst, sir,” said the talkative old arrulous, as he saw the boy look at his watch ”Did you ever 'ear 'ow a big ht with two men, one of 'em a fisherman from New York, and jolly well beat 'em both?”

”No,” Colin answered; ”how could that be?”

”I didn't see it an, ”but froh The fishi+n' party 'ad gone out on the reefs after rockfish, which is one of the gahters we 'ave 'ere, and some of 'em runs up to fifty and sixty pounds They 'ad 'ooked several fine 'ogfish--you want to 'ave a look at so sweepin' spines--and the next bite turned out to be a chub They could see 'ih the surface, just near'a large do spotted fish shot out and seized the chub, sin' the 'ook into the bargain”

”Did they have a strong line?” Colin asked ”A moray is a powerful fish, isn't he?”