348 Recreations of a Sportsman 



an angle of forty-five degrees, moved away at a 

 rapid rate, a thing of grace and beauty. 



If it was calm the fish would move on in a 

 straight line three or four hundred feet, more 

 or less, the side fins widely spread, raised slightly 

 above the body and at a certain angle with it, 

 also inclined slightly forward and outward, 

 forming by the rotation on their long axes an 

 angle of about thirty degrees with the horizon. 

 These fins were like the wings of a kite, essen- 

 tially supporters, while the two anal fins seemed 

 to serve as supplementary balancers. 



As fish after fish darted into the air and I 

 snapped the camera at them, in attempts to take 

 them on the wind, I was forcibly reminded of 

 the flight of the condor, or the man-of-war bird, 

 and others noted for their soaring powers. If 

 the fish could have flapped its wings when its 

 momentum was exhausted, it would have been 

 the soaring of a bird; but this is what happened 

 in not one, but hundreds of instances: the fish 

 moved away until its momentum was exhausted, 

 then the tail began to droop, then to touch the 

 water and drag. Now if the flier was disposed 

 to discontinue the flight the tail sunk deeper and 

 deeper until finally the entire body was sub- 

 merged with a splash. If continued flight was 

 deemed expedient the moment the long lower 

 lobe of the tail touched the water it began the 

 violent screw-like motion, which again precipi- 



