THE BIRTH OF A VOLCANO 135 



youngsters of the size only of an ordinary door and 

 not a double barn-door. Now and then a sealion 

 or two stood upright, half out of the water, gazing 

 at us mildly, like stout little Balboas. The most 

 wonderful sight was three huge Mola, or enormous 

 sunfish. I had read, and seen pictures, of these 

 massive monsters but this trio was the first in the 

 flesh ; and what flesh ! They were devilfish stood on 

 edge — oval masses, with tall dorsal fins, swimming 

 upright, now and then veering enough to show the 

 vast expanse of their vertical sides. I have seen 

 replicas of their proportions in tiny half -inch larval 

 fish which come sometimes in the surface trawls — 

 unbelievably large around in proportion to their 

 thickness (Plate III). 



When Linnaeus first saw one of these sunfish he 

 seems to have exclaimed, ''Mola molliumr Mill- 

 stone of millstones ! And so ever afterwards, even 

 until today, "Best Beloved," every ichthyologist 

 repeats the exclamation "Mola Tuolal" 



My recipe for making a Mola would be to take 

 some enormous fish, of normal body outline, and 

 chop it off just behind the short high dorsal and 

 anal fins. Let these grow around the stump until 

 they meet, and behold, a Mola. 



Nearer and nearer came the volcanic outburst — 

 ever more wonderful and awe-inspiring. We 

 steamed as close as we dared, then turned and 

 circled past again. This we did four times during 

 the afternoon, then lay off-shore and made a last 

 revolution after dark. At each perihelion we 

 brought to bear our batteries of eyes, glasses, still 



