GETTING SOUTHWARD. 57 



soon as lie was able to stand on his feet, he was called 

 on deck again, and not allowed to go below till his watch 

 was over. Meanwhile Captain Slocum improved the 

 occasion by giving us a short harangue, the burden of 

 which was that we had now seen a little of what any 

 of us might ex])ect if we played any " dogs' tricks " on 

 him. But you can get used to anything, I suppose ; so 

 after the first shock of the atrocity was over, things 

 went on again pretty much as usual. 



For the first and only time in my experience, we 

 sighted St. Paul's Eocks, a tiny group of jagged peaks 

 protruding from the Atlantic nearly on the Equator. 

 Stupendous mountains they must be, rising almost sheer 

 for about four and a half miles from the ocean bed. 

 Although they appear quite insignificant specks upon 

 the vast expanse of water, one could not help thinking 

 how sublime their appearance would be were they visible 

 from the plateau whence they spring. Their chief in- 

 terest to us at the time arose from the fact that, when 

 within about three miles of them, we were suddenly 

 surrounded by a vast school of bonito. These fish, so- 

 named by the Spaniards from their handsome appear- 

 ance, are a species of mackerel, a branch of the Scom- 

 bridcB family, and attain a size of about two feet long 

 and forty pounds weight, though their average dimen- 

 sions are somewhat less than half that. They feed 

 entirely upon flying-fish and the small leaping squid or 

 cuttle-fish, but love to follow a ship, playing around 

 her, if her pace be not too great, for days together. 

 Their flesh resembles beef in appearance, and they are 

 warm-blooded ; but, from their habitat being mid-ocean, 

 nothing is known with any certainty of their habits of 

 breeding. 



