80 



THE OOLOGIST 



Many years ago, while "Running 

 the eastern down" in a Liverpool 

 clipper named "Loch Cree", one of the 

 apprentices, with the permission of 

 Captain Achard, marked two Yellow- 

 nosed Albatrosses by tieing a red rib- 

 bon around the neck of one and a 

 blue one on the other. This was done 

 at the longitude of Cape Town, lati- 

 tude 45 South. The birds were liber- 

 ated after they were marked. Their 

 mates first went for the two decorated 

 birds with a perfect rage and were go- 

 ing to tear the ribbons off in spite 

 of everything, but, seeing that it was 

 useless, they finally gave it up and 

 left the two birds by themselves One 

 of these birds followed us only a few 

 days; it evidently took another east- 

 bound vessel, (or the ribbon may 

 have fallen off), while the bird with 

 the red ribbon, together with many 

 unmarked ones, followed our old steel 

 clipper for several weeks eastward, 

 until we passed Tasmania and took a 

 new northerly course to Brisbane, 

 Queensland. Then she left us as well 

 as all the rest of the flock, evidently 

 taking after some southbound vessel, 

 which, after getting far enough south 

 to catch the westerly winds, would 

 "square the yards" and sail eastward 

 towards South America. It must be 

 mentioned here that only few vessels 

 in those latitudes will travel westward 

 on account of the heavy gale always 

 blowing from the west. For instance, 

 if a ship sails from New York to Aus- 

 tralia, she goes out around Cape of 

 Good Hope and returns from Australia 

 to New York around Cape Horn. She 

 may call at only one port in Australia 

 and yet will travel around the globe in 

 order to do it. Ships returning from 

 East India generally come back around 

 Cape of Good Hope, but while "home- 

 ward bound" do not go far enough 

 south to be encountered with these 

 westerly gales, and will keep as near 



South American coast as is possible, 

 often sighting land at "the Cape." 

 Ships going from the Atlantic to the 

 west coast of America do go around 

 Cape Horn, but as soon as they have 

 rounded the Cape, they will head to- 

 ward the tropics, so that they do not 

 bring the eastward drifting Albatross 

 very far back westward. Again, the 

 ships sailing from the west coast of 

 South America to Australia travel 

 westward, but do not go far enough 

 south to meet the Albatrosses. These 

 ships follow the "southeast trade- 

 winds" between the 10th and 30th par- 

 allel south. 



I have mentioned these few "nauti- 

 cal" facts, just to explain to the read- 

 er why fully nine-tenths of the ocean 

 travel in the Albatross latitude is in 

 the easterly direction. Consequently 

 the Albatrosses, while following ships, 

 are most of the time following an east- 

 bound vessel. After they leave one, 

 they will commence to follow another, 

 just to sail eastward again. From the 

 above anyone can gather up a conclu- 

 sion, which hardly requires substan- 

 tiation, that the Albatrosses in the 

 course of their long-life-time, travel 

 around the globe an unaccountable 

 number of times. It is a record that 

 only an Albatross can hold. 



The Yellow-nose is very easily tam- 

 ed aboard of a ship. It is not able to 

 take wing from the decks and can 

 therefore be left at liberty to walk 

 about the decks as he pleases He 

 generally has a vomiting spell as soon 

 as he is pulled on board. Some call 

 this "seasickness," but I think it is 

 the result of being rather roughly 

 handled when pulled up with a spike- 

 hook. However, he soon gets used to 

 the ship life and fares fairly well, as 

 long as the ship remains in the cold 

 latitudes, but will die with the best 

 of care as soon as the ship enters the 

 tropics. 



