WANDERING ALBATROSS. 341 



widest part of the ocean, and it is probable that accor- 

 ding to the seasons, they pass from one extremity of the 

 globe to the other. Like the Fulmar, the constant attend- 

 ant upon the whale, the Albatross, no less adventurous and 

 wandering, pursues the tracks of his finny prey from one 

 hemisphere into another. Dr. Forster saw them in the mid- 

 dle of the southern ocean, 6 or 700 leagues from land. 

 When the flying fish fails they have recourse to the inex- 

 haustible supply of molluscous animals with which the 

 milder seas abound. They are no where more abundant 

 than off the Cape of Good Hope, where they have been 

 seen in April and May, sometimes soaring in the air with 

 the gentle motion of a kite, at a stupendous height ; at 

 others nearer the water, watching the motions of the Flying 

 Fish, which they seize as they spring out of the water to 

 shun the jaws of the larger fish which pursue them. Vast 

 flocks are also seen round Kamtschatka, and the adjacent 

 islands, particularly the Kuriles and Bering's Island, about 

 the end of June. Their arrival is considered by the na- 

 tives of these places as a sure presage of the presence of 

 the shoals of fish which they have thus followed into these 

 remotest of seas. That want of food impels them to un- 

 dertake these great migrations appears from the lean condi- 

 tion in which they arrive from the south ; they soon however 

 become exceeding fat. Their voracity and gluttony is 

 almost unparalleled ; it is not uncommon to sea one swallow 

 a salmon of four or five pounds ^veight ; but as the gullet 

 cannot contain the whole at once, part of the tail end will 

 often remain out of the mouth ; and they become so stupi- 

 fied by their enormous meals, as to allow the natives to 

 knock them on the head without ofiering any resistance. 

 They are often taken by means of a hook baited with a fish, 

 but not for the sake of their flesh, which is hard and unsa- 

 vory, but on account of the intestines, which the Kamtscha- 

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