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.
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