30 THE VOYAGE. 
dorsal and anal fins are opposite each other, and 
placed near the tail, which is deeply but un- 
evenly forked—the lower limb being much the 
longer; the ventral fins, which are posterior to 
the middle of the body, are unusually long and 
strongly rayed. 
But in the uncomfortably calm Pacific, where 
I watched the flying-fish every day, and often all 
day long, I had ample opportunity to observe its 
so-called ‘flying.’ The species that tenant the 
two oceans are very nearly allied, Hxocetus voli- 
tans being the one common to the Pacific ; but it 
is of habits I wish to treat, not of minute specific 
distinctions—that can be settled in the studio. 
Tt seems to me that the distance traversed when 
the fish leaps from the sea, and the length of 
time it remains out of the water, are much over- 
estimated in books on Natural History. Ten or 
twelve seconds may be taken as the average time 
of its flight, and eighty yards the maximum 
distance traversed when the water is perfectly 
tranquil; if aided by a breeze of wind, or pro- 
pelled from the crest of a breaker, the distance 
accomplished would necessarily be greater; but 
the fins have no power to raise the fish a single 
inch above the level of its leap, and simply aid in 
its support, as the extended skin of the flying- 
