33<2 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



three great schools of dolphins churning past, 

 headed northeastward, while on three other days 

 a school or sound of small whales, some species of 

 blackfish, passed, going in the same direction. The 

 third lot, twenty-seven in number, appeared in the 

 late afternoon of our last day. They split up 

 temporarily, twelve or fifteen coming close to have 

 a look at this strange, larger whale. They rolled 

 ponderously about, sighed audibly with sprayfuls, 

 and steamed steadily after their fellows. 



Although my island is sixty miles south of 

 Cocos, yet now and then I find a dead land insect 

 or some seeds in the surface towing nets — a tiny 

 cockchafer or June bug, a water-worn hawkmoth 

 and a flying ant. On May 29th twenty or more 

 dragonflies appeared suddenly on board, hawked 

 about, catching nothing that I could see, although 

 since the warbler had taken the lonely pair of 

 flies, I had seen about a dozen others on board. I 

 caught one of the dragonflies and found it was a 

 large species peculiar to Cocos, with wings hyaline 

 except for a black spot near the base of the hinder 

 pair. On another day a butterfly flew about the 

 ship for hours, one of the strong-winged, leaf- 

 shaped, orange and black brassolids common on 

 the island to the north. 



All this radiation of living creatures, birds and 

 insects, and, as we shall see, plants and fish, over 

 half a hundred miles from a small island, across, 

 rather than with, the prevailing winds and cur- 

 rents, gave me an entirely new idea as to the effec- 

 tiveness of oceanic distribution, and one which was 



