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SOUTH SEA 
catching them with the hook. The ugly sun-fish now 
and then came floating by, and gave the young har- 
pooneer a chance of shewing his newly-acquired dex- 
terity, by plunging the barbed iron into their grisly 
bodies. The ferocious sword-fish frequently shewed 
himself, much to the terror of the bonito and albacore, 
which shot through the fluid element with wonderful 
velocity, to escape from their voracious pursuers. The 
varieties of polypi and medusae which abound here are 
immense, and would find the naturalist with employ- 
ment for a century, were he to particularise the whole of 
their curious peculiarities. 
While on the shore, the tall flamingo, the dingy shag, 
the golden -breasted penguin, the large grey pelican, the 
scissors-bill and diver, gave us sufficient objects for 
reflecting on the wisdom and greatness of Him who had 
formed them, and had placed them there, to enliven the 
barren and inanimate rocks with their presence— to 
inhabit the dreary solitude — -to animate the wilderness. 
At night- fall lines of pelicans, returning from their day’s 
fishing, could be seen flying towards the land, and in 
the morning at sun-rise they could be seen leaving it for 
the sea in the same order, going out to their daily labour. 
I have seen some of those lines, which are formed by 
each bird flying immediately after the other, for half a 
mile in length, and I have seen four or five such lines 
at the same moment. Now and then the great condor 
might be observed at an immense distance, floating in 
ethereal space, and with its powerful and wonderful eye 
scanning the surface of the vast plains or uneven beach 
