Rapipity of light 225 



be seen streaming along very swiftly just beneath 

 the surface, each leaving behind it a broadening 

 track of light, until, as if at one impulse, the whole 

 company suddenly leave the water, the points of their 

 multitudinous exit gleaming in tiny showers of diamond 

 spray. But sometimes in the dark, bewildered, they 

 take the wrong direction, and may be heard striking 

 the ship's side with a series of sounds like hammer 

 taps, and occasionally a straggler, flying higher than 

 the rest, strikes against a mast or a sail and falls on 

 deck dead. I have sometimes seen blood and scales 

 on a lowermast about twenty feet above the deck, 

 proving not only the height to which the fish had 

 risen, but the impetuous velocity of its flight. And 

 it is quite a usual thing to find Flying-fish (where there 

 is no cat on board) in the morning lying on deck, with 

 their heads battered into shapelessness by the force 

 of their impact against some solid part of the ship. 

 Poor puss, however, whose lot on board ship is always 

 a rather rugged one, learns with amazing swiftness 

 that fresh fish are occasionally to be found in obscure 

 corners about the decks at night, and when she does, 

 very few of these succulent morsels find their way into 

 human mouths. 



The strangest instance, proving the velocity of a 

 Flying-fish through the air, which ever came under 

 my notice was on board of the barque ' West York ' 

 in the North Atlantic, homeward bound from Portland, 

 Oregon. It was a lovely night, and with a favouring 

 breeze the vessel was making about five knots an hour. 

 Keeping the look-out upon the small deck forward, 

 wnich is known as the top-gallant forecastle, was 

 a loutish A.B., who from his laziness, stupidity, and 

 uncleanness, was no favourite on board, all the rest 

 of the chaps being pretty smart. He was sitting 



15 



