Some Ocean Aeronauts 339 



the air, the wind strumming on the shrouds, as 

 upon the strings of some gigantic aeolian harp 

 a feature which added strangely to the weird- 

 ness of the scene. The wind, which came in 

 fitful gusts, blew the storm clouds so low that 

 they formed a strongly-defined belt of black, 

 thirty or fifty feet above the water, into which 

 the frightful waves seemed to leap and dis- 

 appear. Clinging to the rigging near the mizzen- 

 mast, I was fascinated by the sight, realizing 

 the full possibilities of ocean scenery. Here 

 were mountains, hills, abysmal depths, vast 

 caverns of solid green and amber with marvel- 

 lous fluctuations of color that seemed to race 

 over the surface to be swallowed up in a dark- 

 ness deeper than night. Here was staged a ma- 

 rine phantasmagoria w r ith all its divertisement, 

 every possibility of scenic effect except life. But 

 as I looked, a wall of water rose, towering over 

 the ship, and from its crest was torn a single 

 living thing, the apotheosis of the storm, a 

 flying fish, that soared away high in air to be- 

 come lost in a cloud of foam ; showing that here 

 where human life hung in the balance, in a tur- 

 moil of the elements appalling to contemplate, 

 one of the most helpless of all the fishes found 

 a home, suggestive of the remarkable adapta- 

 tion of animal life to almost every condition and 

 environment. 



The flying fishes in their variety are essentially 



