Some Ocean Aeronauts 343 



ships, if kept as conscientiously with reference 

 to the natural history of the voyage as to the 

 other happenings, would tell of experiences with 

 these ocean fliers. In one instance a sailor is 

 struck by one. In another the ship's light at 

 night is erroneously thought to have attracted 

 a flier which plunging down into it shatters it, 

 to the dismay of the superstitious toiler of the 

 sea. 



The velocity with which these fliers move is 

 shown in the instance of the bill-fish Hemi- 

 ramphus an ally. I have seen these slender 

 needle-like fishes dart from the water, and by a 

 deft manipulation of the tail, go spinning away 

 with the apparent rapidity of an arrow; and 

 that the rate of speed is sufficient to endanger 

 human life has been demonstrated by Professor 

 Moseley, the naturalist of the Challenger, who 

 describes a rush of an allied fish, stating that 

 it came directly for the boat, striking the cap 

 of an officer, knocking it off. Moseley also states 

 that the so-called flight of this fish is occasion- 

 ally fatal to natives who happen to stand in the 

 course of the living projectile, the velocity of 

 the fish being sufficient to cause it to enter the 

 flesh with disastrous results. The attack is en- 

 tirely accidental. I have frequently alarmed a 

 school of the small bill-fishes in wading along 

 the outer Florida reef by tossing a piece of coral 

 into the water, whereupon they would dash 



