392 THE ALBA TROSS. 



a tract of boundless water, to observe this superb bird sailing in 

 the air, in graceful and elegant movements, seemingly under the 

 influence of an invisible power ; for, when once elevated in the 

 air, there is scarcely any visible movement of its wide wings. 

 Rising, as if some concealed power guided its various motions, 

 without any muscular exertion of its own, and then descending, 

 it sweeps the air close to the stern of the vessel, with an inde- 

 pendence of manner as if it were monarch of all it surveyed. 



It has been remarked by an observer, who has given the 

 best account of these birds,* that they could lower themselves 

 even to the water's edge, and then again rise without any 

 apparent impulse. Whether with or against the wind, seems 

 to be a matter of indifference to them. No tempest troubles 

 the Albatross, for he may be seen, with equal vigour, sportively 

 wheeling in the blast and carousing in the hurricane. Of this 

 noble bird it may indeed be literally said, 



" His march is o'er the mountain wave, 

 His home is on the deep. " 



In the gale he will sweep, occasionally, the rising billows, and 

 seem to delight in the spray bursting over him. 



They are most voracious birds, and easily caught by baiting 

 a hook with offal and letting it trail after the vessel by a long 

 line ; on seizing and swallowing the bait, it will sometimes 

 rise into the air, from whence, by hauling on the line, as a boy 

 does a kite, it is brought on board. Sometimes, however, they 

 break the line and escape, which has afforded a proof of the 

 distance and length of time they will follow a vessel. Thus 

 when hauling in one of large size, the line slipped, and the 

 bird consequently swallowed the hook, and a portion of the 

 line, the remainder of which hung pendant from the beak. 

 From being thus marked, it was ascertained that it followed 

 the ship two days, and might have been doing so for days 

 before ; and in these forty-eight hours, as she sailed at the rate 

 of two hundred miles a day, from the irregular flight of the 

 bird, the space it went over could not have been less than 

 three or four times that distance. Their reason for preferring 

 rough weather to smooth may easily be accounted for, the agita- 

 * Bennet's Wanderings in New South Wales. 



