Flying Fish and their Enemies. 273 



The history of this officer's walking-stick, as told to me, 

 was in this wise : Cat in saloon falls sick, becomes useless, 

 and is voted a nuisance. Boatswain, according to orders, 

 heaves Tabby overboard about seven bells in the dog watch, 

 which, as everybody should know, is half-past seven o'clock. 

 First-class passenger jokes because cat is drowned in dog 

 watch, and cat is thereafter forgotten. Shark is caught next 

 morning on hook baited with three pounds four ounces of 

 pork ; hideous beast is boused up, and slain in the custom- 

 ary manner with axe. Shark being opened, cat is found in 

 the interior ; that it is the defunct Tabby is patent to the 

 meanest understanding. This may be considered by some 

 persons a mere long-bow shot ; for myself, I firmly believe 

 the story. The man who told it me, and who assisted in the 

 capture, was incapable of romancing over such a matter. 



The passing view we obtained of the southern extremity 

 of Ceylon was a grateful break in the monotony of the 

 Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, and it was hailed with 

 delight, not only because it was land seen after many days 

 of sea and sky, but because it presented the first grateful 

 foliage (with the exception of the gardens of Ismailia) we 

 had seen since leaving England. A few catamarans came 

 off as a matter of course, but as they had no fruit on board 

 we treated them with true British contempt The cocoa nut 

 palms are drawn up in line all along the shore, and the 

 entire island, mountain and lowland alike, appears profusely 

 wooded. The harbour of Point de Galle is surrounded by 

 leafy groves, and to us, passing two miles out at sea, its 

 avenues and plantations, with cool habitations peeping above 

 the plaintains and palms, smiled like a Land of Promise. 



Equally bright, by contrast with the brown granite ranges 

 of Africa, the desert expanses of the Isthmus of Suez, and 

 the hopeless sterility of the land bordering the Red Sea, 



