A Leaper of the Kuroshiwo 



through the bottom of a small boat as though it had 

 been made of paper. But nothing occurred, and none 

 struck the water nearer than a few feet, though in a 

 similar scene, an acquaintance told me that a tuna 

 leaped over the boat. Their method of feeding was 

 easily seen. Many were dashing along the surface of 

 the water churning it into foam, snapping up the 

 flying-fishes ; others came up from below and shot into 

 the air, some hitting their prey, some missing them, 

 so that in a glance I could see ten or more of these 

 leapers in the air at the same time in as many differ- 

 ent positions, a scene at once sensational and spirited. 



The action or movement of the vast school was 

 singular. While it, apparently, had no definite plan 

 and fishes were leaping in every possible direction, 

 the school as a whole was moving up the coast, and at 

 a rate of at least three miles an hour, presenting the 

 extraordinary sight from a distance of ten or twenty 

 acres of fiercely congested water, foam, and spume, 

 moving along over a sea of glass. 



Later another school of tunas came in and I met 

 them at the point of the island where the strong west 

 wind of summer came surging in. I entered it from 

 a perfect calm, and as the launch left the blue and 

 entered the rich emerald green waters that character- 

 ize this part of the island, twenty or thirty flying- 

 fishes rose from the sea flushed by a band of tunas. 

 The moment they struck the heavy wind, they went 

 up, and up, until they reached an altitude of I judged 



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