CHAPTER III 



LIVING THINGS IN THE WATERS 



" In the seas and fountains that shine with mom 

 See, Love is waking, and Life is born, 

 And breathing myriads are breaking from night 

 To rejoice, like us, in motion and light." -Bryant. 



WE saw but little life during the voyage. Now and 

 then we caught sight of a school of porpoises in 

 the distance, and on several occasions as I stood at the 

 bow of the ship I observed these creatures racing with 

 the great vessel as it forged through the waves. Once 

 there were ten of them, five on each side, and they kept 

 up with the steamer for twenty minutes, although she 

 was going at fourteen knots an hour. They hardly 

 seemed to move their bodies as they made their onward 

 rush, except when they took a plunge. Just before they 

 rose for their leap out of the water they made three or 

 four rapid strokes of the tail from side to side, and thus 

 propelled shot forth from the wave into the air and de- 

 scended at a steep slant, only immediately to rise again. 

 The open nostril or blow-hole was conspicuous as they 

 emerged. The bodies of the two biggest specimens ap- 

 peared to be scratched or scarred, as if they had been 

 fighting. The race they made with the ship was quite 

 exciting but at last they apparently became tired, and, 

 shooting away to the right and to the left, disappeared. 



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