Big Game at Sea 



five or six fins appeared, my exclamation causing the 

 men to look around. I gave the tiller to Paublo, 

 Chief taking the oars, and crept forward. As I 

 picked up the grains I noticed that I could see the 

 bottom distinctly thirty-five feet below. We had hap- 

 pened upon a school of the monsters which were 

 indulging in some game of the sea. There were, 

 perhaps, ten or twelve in all, moving in a circle one 

 hundred and fifty feet in diameter, and churning the 

 water into a veritable maelstrom. Chief was slowly 

 and noiselessly propelling the boat ahead, and we 

 drifted about thirty feet from the circumference of 

 the circle. 



Surely these fleeting, glistening figures were the 

 witches of the world of fishes, as no more diabolical 

 creature could be imagined. They resembled enor- 

 mous bats, and in following one another around the 

 circle, raised the outer tip of the long wing-like fin 

 high out of the water in a graceful curve, the other 

 being deeply submerged. Imagine a fish shaped 

 something like a bat, the wings ending in graceful 

 points, a vivid black on the upper surface and white 

 beneath, a long whip-like tail, while from near the 

 large and prominent eyes extend forward a pair of 

 writhing, clasping finger-like tentacles three feet in 

 length. Endow such a creature with marvelous 

 activity and a constant desire to change its position 

 and assume some extraordinary attitude, and possibly 

 a faint conception of the actual appearance and per- 



