

THE OCEAN VOYAGE 95 



yet to me so infinitely attractive element which we were 

 now speeding through. 



It was not until the 4th of September that we caught 

 sight of land; the desolate wilderness of the snowy moun- 

 tains of the Fireland (terra dol fuego). Saturday, the 

 5th of July, I saw flying fish for the iirst time; it appears 

 to be the most common among the inhabitants of the trop- 

 ical waters, for hardly a day passed in which we did 

 not see one or more processions of them. They are gen- 

 erally seen in very large numbers, often as many as a 

 hundred or more, rarely alone. The flying fish resem- 

 bles the trout to some extent but reaches hardly three 

 or four inches in length. By means of breast fins, which 

 are unusually well developed and reaching from head to 

 tail, it raises itself above the water and appears in purest 

 silvery light. The rapidity of its motion ma}' be com- 

 pared to that of our ocean swallows. It jumps about ten 

 feet above the water and then manages to sail a dis- 

 tance of ten to fifteen yards through the air; I have even 

 watched some of them that covered fully two or three 

 times the distance. Another fish which is very often 

 met with in the tropics is the tumbler or porpoise. It 

 measures about three or four feet in length and nearly 

 one foot in diameter, brown on top and white at the belly; 

 it generally keeps close to the surface and travels in 

 company of four or five; now and then it jumps a few 

 Peel above the water and is rather lively for its size. 

 Among those that resemble the tumbler is the jumper or 

 hog fish. "When we saw these animals for the first time, 

 on July 22d, they approached us in immense numbers 

 —by thousands — and the sight of their bodies and mo- 

 tions were so comical that every mother's son of us had 

 to laugh until he was completely exhausted. The shape, 

 as the name of the animal indicates, resembles that of a 

 clumsy pig; on its back is a large, strong fin about six 

 inches long and bent backward. The motion consists of 

 a big jump forward by which it raises itself several 

 above the water in a half circle, returning bead first into 

 its former element. Like the tumbler, the hog fish very 



