FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 91 
wings shine with the colours of Venetian glass ; some are 
as large as herrings, and others we see taking very short 
flights are the size of minnows. The bonita are after them 
in eager pursuit. How frightened they are ! I think that 
it is when they are hard pressed that they take to their 
wings. After the bonita and flying-fish come the dolphins, 
pursuing the pursuers. We have tried to catch these 
bonita frequently, but with little success. We fish for them 
from the jibboom end, dragging a hook with white rag 
dressing ; but they are as coy as carp, and take care not 
to hook themselves. I disinterred my fishing-book from 
the depths of my chest, and tempted them with various 
flies. A Mrs, D 's invention, a deadly salmon fly on 
Namsen, fetched them at once ; but they were so strong 
that they snapped treble gut like thread. I tried a spoon 
then, and they moved to it but did not hook. I believe 
a blue Tay phantom would have taken them, from its 
resemblance to a fl/ing-fish. The bonita is one of the 
mackerel tribe, but without stripes on its sides, and much 
resembles those we catch on the British coasts, only it is 
larger, deeper, and broader in proportion to its length, and 
tremendously strong. I should think eight lbs. was about 
the weight of those we saw, I drove my skate-spear into 
one and it was snapped off* at the neck. They rush along 
in a zig-zag course under our bows, travelling at a tremend- 
ous rate. Their prismatic colouring is superb, as if they 
had dived through a rainbow and carried away the colours 
on their shoulders. Why does Nature insist on everything 
here becoming brilliantly coloured, in harmony with the 
brilliant sky, sea, and sunlight, and in the grey north 
