6oo 



A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC 



day and night temperatures. The coldest time of the twenty-four hours is 

 not in the early morning but at sunset. The sea off the beach is, on 

 the average, much cooler than the air, which is not a normal state of 

 things ; and again, the water is often two or three degrees colder in 

 the evening than it is in the morning, which is very unusual. Though the 

 sea-border is practically a desert for the greater part of the year and has no 

 rain, it is frequently enveloped in drizzling fogs or "garuas." Judged from 

 a European standard, things go by contraries on the coast of Peru ; and this 

 is entirely the effect of the Humboldt Current. 



The temperature of the inshore waters of Ancon Bay varied consider- 

 ably during the twenty-four hours. During the day, with the prevailing 

 southerly wind, the cool waters of the current had free access to the bay, 

 and swept around its border in their course north ; but in the night, when 

 northerly breezes occurred, the cold waters of the current were pushed off 

 the coast and their place taken by the warmer inshore waters from the 

 north ; and this sometimes continued for a day or two. When the 

 current again got mastery and its clean, cool waters filled the bay, the 

 temperature of the water dropped suddenly five or six degrees, and the 

 bay was filled with fish. At such times men in boats leave the beach, and 

 in a few minutes, with hand-nets and baskets, they obtain thousands of the 

 small fry. Other men, fishing with lines from the pier-head, seem ill- 

 contented unless they can catch fish of the size of small mackerel at the 

 rate of one a minute. 



There can be little doubt that on the coasts of Chile and Peru the 

 instincts of fish often lead them astray, on account of the sudden changes 

 of temperature arising from the conflict between the warmer waters of the 

 open sea and the cooler waters of the current. From the preceding 

 remarks it will be inferred that sometimes the current is pushed off the 

 coast for a while and its place taken by the warm waters from the north. 

 At other times it dives down, so to speak, and flows at a deeper level, and 

 warmer waters prevail both out at sea and inshore. At other times again, 

 and this must be most disconcerting to the fish, the cold current suddenly 

 appearing at the coast predominates at the surface for days together, and 

 we have stretches of coast which, although lying within tropical latitudes, 

 are washed by waters having the temperature of the temperate zone. It is 

 to such causes that we must attribute the reckless habits of fish on these 

 coasts. They are known to throw themselves on the beaches in thousands, 

 where by their decay they taint the air long afterwards. Mr. Anderson 

 Smith in his recent book on Temperate Chile vividly describes what 

 goes on on such occasions at the port of Valdivia. At times the scene 

 must be indeed a strange one, since huge octopi are rolled up on the 

 beaches in numbers, and are regarded by the indigenes as deliberately 

 seeking their death. Whether they commit suicide or not, " their beaks 

 that blacken the edge of the sea-wash in places " afford a melancholy proof 

 that their instinct has blundered. 



