THE FLYING-FISH PROBLEM' 



LIEUT.-COLONEL C. D. DURNFORD 



In a paper published in the Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History for January, 1906, the impossibiUty, from a mechanical 

 point of view, of a flying-fish accomplishing sailing flight was 

 shown. The argument was based upon the fact that as a flying 

 animal the flying-fish is equipped with wings of a fractional sail- 

 ing value compared with those of a sailing bird. Also that if the 

 wings were many times larger, so as to bring the fish on an equality 

 with the bird in this respect, it could only sail with the bird's 

 limitations as regards direction of the wind, and with the bird's 

 frequent assistance from rowing flight. Also that if the figures 

 (which can be easily verified or, if wrong, refuted) are correctly 

 given in the article, the accepted aeroplane flight is miraculous, 

 unless a new law of Nature be discovered. 



It is, then, perhaps advisable, if the present curious condition 

 of the question is to be understood, to examine how it has come 

 about. 



The flying-fish problem is a very odd one in many ways, of which 

 the most striking is the unexplained power therein of the negative 

 to quench the positive. Throughout we find the aeroplanist's 

 "I cannot see the wing-movement" smothering a fairly equal 

 bulk of "I can, and have, and do see it." 



Let us create a parallel instance, for a real parallel does not 

 perhaps exist : — Many people can see bullets in their flight. 

 Many others with equally good, or even better, sight cannot pick 

 up the flying bullets. Now if those who fail to see them said, and 

 if all books and papers on shooting supported them in so saying, 



'This article was intended to appear simultaneously in the American 

 Naturalist and in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History^ut delays 



publication here may be pardoned. — Editor. 



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