1891.
Sept 25. At sea off Grand Banks. - Early morning clear but 
clouds gathering through the forenoon, the afternoon
dull and dark with a sombre lead-colored sea.
Wind light from S.w. Weather much warmer.
  While dressing I happened to look through my
port-hole and the first thing I saw was a
great school of Porpoises - thirty or forty of
them at least - racing with the steamer and
not forty yards from her side. They were
small, dark greenish and very slender and
graceful in shape. They kept leaping out of water,
a dozen or more at once, each clearing six to
eight feet and frequently springing four or five
feet above the surface, describing the most
graceful curves and clearing the surface, when
they dove, so cleanly as to make scarcely any
splash. They reminded me of a lot of romping
school-boys playing leap frog.
  While I was watching them a large dark colored
bird which I took for a Buffon's Skua passed
close to the steamer.
  Small Petrels, doubtless Oceanites oceanica,
appeared early this morning and were seldom
out of sight during the remainder of the day.
They were at no time very numerous but
I must have seen fifty in all. None of
them followed the steamer but they were
continually wandering about in their usual
aimless fashion.
  Besides these birds I saw nothing whatever
to-day.