As, however, a man's difficulties usually set him upon devising methods
to overcome them, whereby he often discovers better things than those he
may have lost, so this our difficulty induced us to think of searching
for a large pool among the rocks, where the water should be deep enough
for diving, yet so surrounded by rocks as to prevent sharks from getting
at us. And such a pool we afterwards found, which proved to be very
much better than our most sanguine hopes anticipated. It was situated
not more than ten minutes' walk from our camp, and was in the form of a
small, deep bay or basin, the entrance to which, besides being narrow,
was so shallow that no fish so large as a shark could get in--at least,
not unless he should be a remarkably thin one.

Inside of this basin, which we called our Water Garden, the coral
formations were much more wonderful, and the seaweed plants far more
lovely and vividly coloured, than in the lagoon itself. And the water
was so clear and still that, although very deep, you could see the
minutest object at the bottom. Besides this, there was a ledge of rock
which overhung the basin at its deepest part, from which we could dive
pleasantly, and whereon Peterkin could sit and see not only all the
wonders I had described to him, but also see Jack and me creeping
amongst the marine shrubbery at the bottom, like--as he expressed
it--"two great white sea-monsters." During these excursions of ours to
the bottom of the sea we began to get an insight into the manners and
customs of its inhabitants, and to make discoveries of wonderful things,
the like of which we never before conceived. Among other things, we
were deeply interested with the operations of the little coral insect,
which, I was informed by Jack, is supposed to have entirely constructed
many of the numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean. And certainly, when
we considered the great reef which these insects had formed round the
island on which we were cast, and observed their ceaseless activity in
building their myriad cells, it did at first seem as if this might be
true; but then, again, when I looked at the mountains of the island, and
reflected that there were thousands of such (many of them much higher)
in the South Seas, I doubted that there must be some mistake here. But
more of this hereafter.

I also became much taken up with the manners and appearance of the
anemones, and starfish, and crabs, and sea-urchins, and such-like