A Leaper of the Kuroshiwo 



To one familiar with the delicate flying-fish of the 

 Atlantic such an experience might seem trivial, but 

 the flying-fish of the tuna, the tid-bit of its taste, is 

 eighteen inches long or more, weighs one or two 

 pounds, and has four wing-like parachutes, which 

 while they are not wings, and the fish does not fly, 

 bear it aloft and support it along the surface at an 

 astonishing speed, and with a momentum that has 

 been known to knock a standing man down. The 

 flier has two pairs of supporting wing-like fins. The 

 front pair measures nine by nine inches, or eighty-one 

 square inches; the smaller ones three and one-half by 

 three and one-half inches each, and tipped at an 

 angle of 40 degrees, poised like a kite, the heavy 

 flier dashes away in any direction from one hundred 

 feet to an eighth of a mile, during which it uses its 

 tail several times for additional stimulus. 



The leaper of the Kuroshiwo is an ocean traveler, 

 a bandit of the sea, a swashbuckler, preying upon vic- 

 tims of many kinds. When the flying-fish fails the 

 tuna descends to deeper waters and preys upon young 

 squids, and I have seen it charge these diabolic, 

 ghostly creatures, chasing individuals upon the beach, 

 that were eight or ten feet long. On pleasant days 

 you may find tuna upon the surface off the bay of 

 Avalon, swimming in great schools, one big porten- 

 tous tuna swimming in advance, forming, with their 

 big dorsal fins out of water, a big angle, reminding 

 one of the flight of ducks or geese. I have run into 



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