Some Ocean Aeronauts 353 



and dashing away before the gale, their wings 

 or fins gleaming like molten silver in the 

 sunlight. 



The development of fins into parachutes is a 

 provision of nature to enable an entirely defence- 

 less fish to escape its enemies, which are legion; 

 but as remarkable as are its possibilities, those 

 wolves of the sea, the predatory tuna and alba- 

 core, are rarely deceived by the apparent dis- 

 appearance of the fish. As it leaves the water, 

 the large fish rushes for it, perhaps striking it, 

 but if it soars away, the sharp-eyed follower is 

 on its track, a few inches below the surface, 

 ready to receive it. When completely ex- 

 hausted, it drops back into its native element 

 which affords it so little protection, and is often 

 seized at the moment of impact. 



This sight will long linger in my memory: 

 The lofty and precipitous mountain shores of 

 Santa Catalina rising directly from the sea, the 

 water broken by mysterious ground swells that 

 appeared to come in from the unknown to vent 

 their fury upon the rocks ; the flying fishes lifted 

 into the air by the gale until they could be seen 

 glistening like silver against the dark back- 

 ground of the island cliffs that beat back the 

 sea, grim and forbidding. Moseley, the en- 

 thusiastic naturalist of the Challenger, states 

 that he believes that he has seen the so-called 

 flying robins flutter their wings when flying, and 



