10 



A FLYING TEIP TO THE TROPICS. 



mj great relief, our symptoms began to moderate, and we once 

 more took an interest in life. We began to make the acquaintance 

 of the passengers, among whom we found especially agreeable Mr. 

 Birtner, the German consul to Maracaibo, who was accompanied by 

 his family. We also began to develop ravenous appetites and to 

 look forward impatiently to meal-time, when we did full justice 

 to the good dishes of the Venezuela's cook. Captain Hopkins was 

 kind enough to place us at his table, and did a great deal to make 

 our trip a pleasant one. 



This day we saw hundreds of flying-fish, and watched a great 

 many of them throughout their flight. They cannot be properly 

 said to fly, yet they do more than simply sail through the air with 

 the momentum acquired by their start from the water. As soon as 

 they clear the water, they spread their wide pectoral and anal fins 

 and hold them horizontal and motionless during the remainder of 

 their flight. They can steer themselves up or down, as I saw hun- 

 dreds of them keep at a distance of a few inches above the surface, 

 going down into the troughs between the waves, but rising to clear 

 the crests. I also saw some, when they had lost most of their 

 velocity and were apparently just about to return to the water, droop 

 the hinder part of their bodies until their tails touched the water, 

 when they would wriggle them rapidly and violently and thus get a 

 new impetus without actually entering the water. 



Wednesday was like Tuesday ; the wind was still against us, so 

 we did not go along as rapidly as we otherwise would ; still we aver- 

 aged about three hundred miles per day. 



On Thursday morning, as we made the Mona passage, we saw 

 our first land since leaving New York : Mona rock, a sharp and 

 rugged peak rising from the water on our left ; Mona Island, a 

 large, barren-looking table-land, with precipitous and, in some places, 

 overhanging shores on our right. To the extreme right was a little 

 flat sand-bar of an island. Little Mona, or Monita, and in the far 

 distance to the left rose the blue mountains of Puerto Rico. 



As we drew near the passage, many birds came around the ship ; 



