1894
April 14
St. Vincent to Guadeloupe
  At breakfast this morning we were off St. Vincent
some six or eight miles from shore. There were a
good many birds in sight most of them Booby Gannets
which were assembled in flocks over spots where
they must have discovered schools of fish for
they kept plunging down into the water like
Terns. There were also a few Audubon's Shearwaters
and an occasional Frigate Bird.

  Flying Fish were more numerous than I have ever
seen them before. They kept rising in great schools
or flocks and skimming off in every direction to
escape our steamer. For two hours or more they
were constantly in sight but after twelve o'clock
I did not see one.

  Off the northern end of St. Vincent but several
miles from the land I saw four birds new to me.
They were either Sooty or Bridled Terns. They passed
within 200 yards of the steamer & occasionally hovered
and plunged for fish. I though I heard one of them
utter a soft hew-it much like that of the Roseate
Tern.

  The afternoon was consumed in passing Dominica
and the open water to the northward. We ran
close in shore and had a much finer view of this
island than when we passed it last month for to-day
the mountains were free from clouds and the sir
was very transparent. It is certainly the most
beautiful of the Windward Islands.