66 Naturalist at Large 



gliding with their wings parallel with the surface of the 

 water, but they cut and pivot and jibe about as if they 

 were standing on end more than half the time. Indeed, it 

 looks as if they stuck the tip of one wing in the water and 

 used this as a fulcrum as they pivot to swing past the crest 

 of a wave. On the voyage to South Africa you meet them 

 shortly after leaving Saint Helena, and for a day or so 

 before reaching Cape Town you may see great numbers. 

 They are perhaps even more abundant off Southern Chile, 

 and if by chance you should pass near the floating carcass 

 of a whale you will see them in swarms, Hke herring gulls 

 in the harbor of Key West after a bad cold spell in the 

 north. 



Porpoises are always diverting and, of course, are fa- 

 miliar to every traveler at sea. But on three occasions we 

 were extraordinarily thrilled by seeing gigantic schools of 

 porpoises that behaved m a quite extraordinary manner. 

 More than one species must have been involved, for once 

 we saw what I am about to describe off the west coast of 

 Costa Rica, once near Amboina in the Moluccas, and the 

 third time nearing the Cape of Good Hope. 



On each occasion the sea was calm and still. There may 

 have been an occasional porpoise rolling lazily, as one is 

 accustomed to observe them, but on each of these three 

 mornings the sea became suddenly alive with porpoises — 

 thousands upon thousands of them, rolling and jumping 

 high in the air, jumping over one another, past one an- 

 other, boiling and plunging. There seemed no question but 

 that they were playing, as I saw no evidence that they 

 were driving fish before them. After carrying on in this 

 manner for perhaps half or three quarters of an hour, as if 



