THE ALBATROSS. 413 



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. Tired, 

 in truth, they rarely are ; but should they be, though never 

 seen to swim, they can, in consequence of their feet being 

 webbed and remarkably large, walk on the surface of the 

 water when it is smooth, with hardly any assistance from 

 their wings ; and the noise of their tread may be heard at a 

 great distance.* 



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. Some- 

 times, 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 agitation of the 

 waves no doubt bringing to the surface those marine animals 

 which serve them for food : they will glide down on them 

 with unerring aim and fearful force, transfixing whatever 

 they have aimed at with their large, strong, and trenchant bill. 



A poor fellow who fell overboard from a man of war, off 



* WEDDELL. 



