E

Colin wakened early the following morning and got up promptly, planning
to show his alertness, but when he came downstairs and sauntered out
between the oleander bushes toward the water he heard a hail and found
that his chief was already up and was busy unpacking some large boxes
which had been delivered the night before. The boy hurried to help him.

"What are these, Mr. Collier?" he asked, as some large square boxes with
a window in the bottom came into view.

"These are water glasses," the scientist answered, "not the kind that is
used by tourists, but some I have had made specially--lenses with
reflecting mirrors; with them the bottom of the sea ought to show up
clearly. As you notice, they are long enough to be usable from the deck
of a fair-sized sailing boat. It's a shame only to half-see things as
beautiful as the sea-gardens. When a thing's worth while, it is so much
worth while."

"I thought you would probably have to dive," Colin said, "in order to
see the submarine gardens thoroughly."

The curator shook his head.

"You'll find," he said, "that we can see almost as well with these as
though you and I were a couple of angel fish, swimming in and out of the
grottoes of the coral. The water--as you noticed when we were coming
into the harbor--is as clear as crystal. There's nothing in coral sand
to make it cloudy or muddy."

"Are we going out this morning?" the boy queried eagerly, as he helped
in the unpacking of the various instruments that the museum expert had
brought.

"The boat is to be here at half-past eight," was the reply, "and we're
going to find the most beautiful spot that there is in the submarine
Garden of Eden. Our darky boatman, 'Early Bird,' they call him, says he
knows a place quite far out on the reef where there are wonderful groves
and parterres unspoiled by tourists because they lie so distant that it
is not worth while for the excursion boats to make the trip."

"I don't quite see," said Colin, "how the visit of tourists floating
over a stretch of sea could harm the seaweeds and the coral growing on
the bottom."

"But it does, because a number of the glass-bottomed boats carry a diver
who goes down and breaks off specimens of coral at the tourists'
request, selling them for a good sum. But the gardens to which we are
going, I understand, are entirely out of the beaten track and are very
much finer besides. Here is 'Early Bird' now."

As he spoke, a white sailboat with