WANDERING ALBATROSS. 117 



leagues from land. When the flying fish fail they 

 have recourse to the inexhaustible supply of molluscous 

 animals with which the milder seas abound. They are 

 nowhere more abundant than off the Cape of Good 

 Hope, where they have been seen in April and May, 

 sometimes soaring in the air with the gentle motion 

 of the Kite at a stupendous height, at others nearer 

 the water, watching the motions of the flying fish, 

 which they seize as they spring out of the water to 

 shun the jaws of the larger fish wliich pursue them. 

 Vast flocks are also seen around Kamtschatka and the 

 adjacent islands, particularly the Kuriles and Bering's 

 Island, about the end of June. Their arrival is con- 

 sidered by the natives of these places as a sure presage 

 of the presence of the shoals of fish which they have 

 thus followed into these remotest seas. That want of 

 food impels them to undertake these great migrations, 

 appears from the lean condition in which they arrive 

 from the south; they soon, however, become exceedingly 

 fat. Their voracity and gluttony is almost unparalleled; 

 it is not uncommon to see one swallow a salmon of 

 four or five pounds weight; but as the gullet cannot 

 contain the whole at once, part of the tail end will 

 often remain out of the mouth; and they become so 

 stupified with their enormous meal, as to allow the 

 natives to knock them on the head without oflering 

 any resistance. 



"They are often caught with a hook baited with 

 fish, but not for the sake of their flesh, which is hard 

 and unsavoury, but on account of the intestines, which 

 the Kamtschaclales use as a bladder to float the buoys 

 of their fishing-nets. Of the bones they also make 

 tobacco-pipes, needle-cases, and other small implements. 

 When caught, however, they defend themselves stoutly 



