48 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



bowling along on our proper course in the midst 

 of bergless blue water. . " 



Now throughout that time, hardly an animal 

 or bird was noticed amongst the ice — just a few 

 whale birds and a solitary whale. But when we 

 rounded Cape Horn and were near the Falkland 

 Islands, the ship was for several hours surrounded 

 by them. 



At the line of junction, or the space where the 

 Atlantic north-east and south-east trade-winds 

 meet (neutralising each other), to the north of the 

 Equator, a belt of calms is formed, known to 

 sailors as the ''doldrums" or "rains," most aggra- 

 vating to sailing-ships, the clerk of the weather 

 never apparently being able to make up his mind 

 regarding it, and vacillating between the selection 

 of squalls, puffs of air from all directions, hours 

 of dead calm, or torrential showers of rain. 



A good many fish are often seen in the doldrums, 

 and once I espied a large school of black-fish — a 

 species of whale, twenty feet long, black and 

 white in colour, and with a short triangular back 

 fin — chasing the bonita, albacore, and flying-fish, 

 that abounded. 



On this voyage the doldrum weather finally 

 broke tip with a series of heavy squalls accom- 

 panied by several water-spouts (fortunately some 



