en
line. As it sweeps onward, with a slow and majestic movement towering
up, like a dark-blue mountain, it seems as if nothing could resist its
power, and you almost tremble lest the solid barrier upon which you
stand should be hurled from its foundations. It meets the curving line
of the reef with a tremendous concussion, and thus suddenly arrested by
the parapet of coral, reared from the depths of the sea, it rises at
once, throughout its entire length, to the height of twelve or fifteen
feet perpendicularly, and stands for a moment as if congealed in its
progress; then breaking with a hollow roar, it falls in a deluge of foam
and spray, filling all the seams and crevices, and marking their course
in lines of white upon the dark ground of the ledge. Not the least
striking feature of the spectacle, was the multitude of fishes, of all
shapes, colours, and sizes, that could be seen suspended in the face of
this liquid wall, the very moment before it fell. How they escaped
being thrown upon the reef seemed inexplicable, but they darted hither
and thither at the very edge of the roller, with the greatest apparent
ease and security, and almost invariably turned sea-ward just in time to
save themselves. Occasionally, however, some careless or unskilful
individual, 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 for
help, and hastening to the spot, I found him in one of the yawning
crevices of the coral rock, up to his neck in water, and struggling
violently to get out, in which he seemed to meet with opposition from
some object in the hole.

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

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

Arthur pronounced this extraordinary shell-fish, to