Living Things in the Waters 29 



the carriage. I had my butterfly-net with me, and 

 succeeded in bagging several specimens. If they had 

 not pursued us, they would not have been caught. 

 The small boy who runs along the pavement trying 

 in a burst of speed to keep up with a passing automobile 

 reveals the survival in him of the same instinct which 

 is shown by the lower animals. This racing habit is 

 curious. 



But we were speaking of whales. Bahia is a whaling 

 station, and we were told there that the catch made by 

 the whalers at that port during the past summer had 

 been exceptionally good, and that over forty large 

 whales, each yielding five hundred dollars' worth of oil, 

 had been taken by the local fishermen. They go out 

 in small craft, harpoon their mighty quarry, and then 

 tow the carcasses to the shore, where the blubber is 

 flaked and tried out. 



The only other mammals which we observed during 

 the voyage were seals. These w r e saw in considerable 

 numbers at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. On our 

 way from Montevideo to Buenos Aires at intervals the 

 shy creatures would raise their heads from the muddy 

 water, gaze for a moment, and then dive out of 

 sight. 



There was a remarkable absence of birds during the 

 early part of our voyage. I do not recall having seen 

 a single bird upon the Gulf Stream. Now and then as 

 we approached the southern continent we saw a few 

 petrels, but it was not until we came close to the shore 

 that birds became numerous. During the last days of 

 the voyage, after we had left the tropics behind us, 

 several species of gulls appeared in numbers straggling 

 in the wake of the ship, and also numerous Cape- 

 pigeons (Daption capense, Linn.), the elegant black and 



