THE ALBATROSS. 249 



remarkably large, walk on the surface of the water, 

 when it is smooth, with hardly any assistance from 

 their wings ; and the noise of their tread may be 

 heard at a great distance*. 



They are most voracious birds, and easily caught 

 by baiting a hook with offal and letting it trail after 

 the vessel by a long line : on seizing and swallowing 

 the bait, it will sometimes rise into the air, from 

 whence, by hauling on the line, as a boy does a kite, 

 it is brought on board. Sometimes, however, they 

 break the line and escape, which has afforded a 

 proof of the distance and length of time they will 

 follow a vessel. Thus, when hauling in one of large 

 size, the line slipped, and the bird, consequently, 

 swallowed the hook, and a portion of the line, the 

 remainder of which hung pendent from the beak. 

 From being thus marked, it was ascertained that it 

 followed the ship two days,- and might have been 

 doing so for days before ; and in these forty-eight 

 hours, as'she sailed at the rate of two hundred miles 

 per day, from the irregular flight of the bird, the space 

 it went over could not have been less than three or 

 four times that distance. Their reason for preferring 

 rough weather to smooth may easily be accounted 

 for, the agitation of the waves no doubt bringing to 

 the surface those marine animals which serve them 

 for food ; they will glide down on them with uner- 

 ring aim and fearful force, transfixing whatever 

 they have aimed at with their large, strong, and 

 trenchant bill. 



A poor fellow who fell overboard from a man-of- 



* Weddell. 



