Chapter 8 Section VIII

Surrounded by coral reefs, Dolphin Island is a magical kingdom.Even if a person's life is exhausted, it is difficult to experience its beauty.Johnny had never dreamed that there were places in the world so beautiful and wonderful that no field or forest on any land could compare with it. When the tide is high, the coral reefs are submerged underwater, leaving only a long and narrow white sandy beach around the island.But after a few hours, the changes were unbelievable.In fact, the difference in water level between high tide and low tide is only three feet.The sea receded for miles.In fact, in some places the sea has receded completely out of sight, and as far as the eye can see is a great plain of coral reefs stretching far to meet the horizon.

This is the best time to go and explore the coral reefs.All that is needed is a pair of sturdy shoes, a wide-brimmed hat, and a face mask.The most important of these are shoes, because the coral is sharp and fragile, it is easy to cut the skin on the feet, and the wounds are often infected and take several weeks to heal. Mick was Johnny's guide on his first trip to the reef.Because he had never been in such a place, everything was very new to him--even a little scary.At first Johnny was cautious, but after getting used to it, he was a little bolder.There are some small things on the coral reef that don't seem to hurt people, but if you are not careful, they will kill you.

The two boys walked straight out from the sandy beach on the west side of the island; there, the coral outcropping was only half a mile wide.They first crossed the debris-strewn areas of dead coral—corrupted coral flakes left by storms over the centuries, making the area seem lifeless and untouched.In fact, the entire island is formed by the accumulation of such broken coral fragments. Over time, it is covered with a thin layer of soil, and then weeds grow, and finally trees grow. The two quickly passed through the dead coral area.Johnny found that he seemed to have entered an incomparably wonderful petrified woods.The colorful stone branches can be picked by hand; the huge mushrooms are hard and can be stepped on.These corals, despite their plant-like appearance, were actually created by animals.Johnny bent down to observe carefully, and saw thousands of tiny holes on the surface of the coral.Inside each tiny hole is a single coral polyp—an anemone-like creature.The pores are actually ring-shaped seats made of lime secretion from coral polyps.After the coral polyp died, the annular seat stayed, and a new generation of coral polyps built a new annular seat on it.In this way, the coral grows year by year and stretches continuously.Everything Johnny saw—the endless, flat plateau gleaming in the sun—had been created by beings no bigger than a fingernail.

Along the coast of mainland Australia, this coral reef stretches for thousands of miles and is named the "Great Barrier Reef".The coral reef here is only a very small part of the entire Great Barrier Reef.Professor Kazan once said that coral reefs are the most magnificent creations of animals on earth.Johnny finally understood this sentence now. Soon, Johnny discovered that there were other creatures on the coral reefs besides coral butterflies.Suddenly, just a few feet in front of Johnny, a rush of water caught him off guard. "What's that?" Seeing Johnny's inexplicable surprise, Mick laughed.

"It's clams," Mick replied simply. "It only sprayed water when it heard you approaching." Soon, Johnny saw a clam that was spraying water.It was a foot long, vertically embedded in the butterfly, with only its parted lips showing.Half of the clam's body is exposed outside the shell, like a piece of colorful velvet, studded with emeralds and sapphires.Mick kicked his feet on the rocks beside it, and it panicked and shrank back in, closing its shell—its jet of water shot upwards and almost hit Johnny in the face. "It's just a little guy," said Mick contemptuously. "It's deep down that you see the big ones - they can get four or five feet long. My grandpa said he'd seen clams that were 12 feet long when he was working on the pearling boats in Cooktown. But Everyone knows that grandpa likes to talk big, so I don't believe him."

Johnny also had a hard time believing there were clams five feet long.But then he found out that this time Mick was telling the truth.On the coral reef, there is always something new. They walked on for a few hundred yards, spattered with spurts of water from startled clams.At last they came to the edge of a small pool surrounded by rocks.The water in the pool is so clear that you can see the fish swimming at the bottom of the pool, as if flying in the air. These fish are so colorful, with strips, circles and dots, as if some crazy painter has poured all kinds of colors on the palette. Even the most beautiful butterfly can't compare Catch these colorful fish swimming among the coral formations.

There are many other creatures in the pool.Mick showed Johnny two very long tentacles protruding from a small rock cave with his fingers, and they kept dangling back and forth, as if exploring the world outside the cave. "It's a colored crayfish," Meek said. "We caught them when we came back. The lobster meat was delicious - roasted and buttered, it was delicious!" In less than 5 minutes, Meek told Johnny about 20 kinds of creatures: shellfish with black and white markings; Inside the shell; there's another thing, like a big moth, that spits out a jet of purple ink when Mick steps on it.

Johnny saw an octopus for the first time.It was a juvenile octopus, only a few feet long, poking its head out of the shadows, moving surreptitiously.Only a veteran like Mick can spot it.Mick frightened it on purpose, and it fled to the bright place, and swam over the coral in a very graceful posture. At the same time, the original gray color turned into bright pink.To Johnny's surprise, the little guy was very pretty.Of course, if he encountered a big octopus, he would definitely change his mind. He could have played all day by the pond, but Mick was in a hurry.They continued to walk towards the sea in the distance.They zigzag through the coral to avoid breaking the fragile coral.

At one point, Mick stopped to pick up a speckled shell that looked like a pinecone ball. "Look at this," he said, holding the shell up to Johnny. A black pointed jun, shaped like a sickle, stabbed at Johnny from one end of the shell.Because it was held in Mick's hand, of course Johnny couldn't be stabbed. "It's poisonous," Meek said. "If you stab it, you will get sick, and if you don't do it well, you will die!" Mick put the shell on the rock.Johnny looked at it and couldn't help thinking -- something so small, and so beautiful to look at, could kill!He certainly wouldn't immediately forget the lesson Mick had taught him.

At the same time, he also learned that there is no danger in exploring coral reefs as long as you follow two principles that are within the scope of common sense.One, observe carefully before stepping down; two, don't touch anything or creatures you are not familiar with. At last they reached the end of the reef and gazed out at the gently undulating sea.The tide was still going out, and the water was coming out of the corals and into the holes in the rocks; there were some big, deep pools, leading out to the sea; and the fish swimming in the water were much bigger than what Johnny had seen just now up.

"Come on," Mick said, putting on his mask, and he plunged into the pool with barely a splash.He didn't look back to see if Johnny jumped off after him. Johnny hesitated a moment, thinking he couldn't be a coward, and jumped from the coral into the water too.When the water covered his visor, he was no longer afraid.Now, he sees the underwater world more beautifully than he sees by the pool.He himself is like a fish, swimming in a huge aquarium, and through the window hole in the mask, everything under the water can be seen in a panoramic view. He followed Mick, along the pool wall, and slowly swam out among the coral cliffs, gradually approaching the sea.At first, the water was only two or three feet deep, and then the bottom of the pool suddenly dropped vertically, unfathomably deep.In one fell swoop Johnny was in twenty feet of water.He found that he had swum out of the coral reef and was swimming towards the sea. He couldn't help feeling a little scared for a moment.He paused to see how much time he had been underwater and looked back to see how far he was from the reef.Then he looked forward and looked down again. He had no way of estimating how deep he looked—probably at least a hundred feet down.It was a long, deep slope, a world apart from the clear, brightly colored pool he had just left.He saw a blue, dark and mysterious world.In the deep water, some big animals are swimming around, looking solemn and graceful. "What are those things?" he asked his companion in a low voice. "It's grouper," said Mick. "Attention." Then, Mick dived into the water, swift as an arrow and graceful as a fish, which surprised Johnny. Mick grew closer to the giant swimming creatures, while he himself became smaller and smaller.It stopped diving and swam over the grouper.At this point he was about 50 feet down.He tried to reach out to touch the big fish but it flicked away with its tail. Mick seemed in no hurry to get back up there.But Johnny had returned to the surface for more than a dozen breaths during the entire process.Finally, Mick finally came up slowly and waved goodbye to the grouper.Johnny was relieved. "How big are those fish?" Johnny asked after Mick lifted his head out of the water and took a few breaths. "Oh, only 80 to 100 pounds. Up north, the groupers are big over there. Out of Cairns Bay, my grandpa caught an 800-pound grouper!" "Of course you don't believe him, do you?" Johnny asked, laughing. "No, this time I believed it." Mick also said with a smile. "He showed me the picture!" As they swam back toward the reef, Johnny took another look at the deep blue underwater world.There are coral rocks, platforms made of coral, and those big fish swimming around.This strange world seems to be on another planet, but this is exactly on the planet where he lives-the earth!For Johnny, this was a completely strange world, and he was both curious and afraid. The only way to satisfy his curiosity and dispel his fear is that one day in the future, he must dive down the cliff with Mick to explore the mysterious blue world.