Ch. XXn.] ALBICOEES AND PLTING-FISH. 379 



flying-fish, not more than 2 inches long, such as I had never 

 seen hefore, and which only seemed capable of propelling 

 itself a yard or two through the air. 



At ten o'clock in the morning we hove-to, for the pur- 

 pose of practising with shot and shell at a target ; and for 

 an hour the boom of 68-pounders, and the crash of 110- 

 pounder Armstrongs, added to the splash of the shot and 

 shell, might have been imagined to be sufficient to frighten 

 the Albicores, &c., away. But although I did not notice 

 them as long as we were lying-to, no sooner did we continue 

 our course than the scene was resumed ^vith renewed activity. 

 One of the Albicores seized a hook baited with a rag, which 

 was hung over the bowsprit, but the Hne was not strong 

 enough for his violent plunges, and he carried it all away. 

 They did not leave the ship aU day ; and ia the afternoon 

 I noticed two of them swimming close beside the bridge. 

 They accompanied us at least two hours, always in the 

 same spot, keepLag pace with the ship — every now and then 

 diverging after a passing flying-fish, but returning again to 

 their station beside the bridge. How long they had been 

 in that position before they were noticed I cannot say. 



Flying-fish must be extremely abundant. On some days 

 the shoals seen on the wing must have amounted to many 

 thousands ; and even when none were seen, proofs some- 

 times existed of their great plenty. Thus, when lying for 

 several days on the edge of the Pratas Reef, in the China 

 Sea, not a single flying-fish was observed on the wing, yet 

 when I went among the gannets' nests upon the island, I 

 found that every bird sitting upon the nest had four or five 

 large fresh flying-fishes in its stomach, which it disgorged 

 before taking wing. These were probably taken in the 

 water by the birds. At Kelung, in North Formosa, I saw 



