328 
OCEANIC PHENOMENA. 
Oiir voyage home was not distinguished by any 
event demanding j^articular notice. The capture of 
a recent sj^ecies of Beleropliina, a form imagined 
to be only found in a fossil state, and the represen- 
tative of those great extinct cephalopods which 
formerly disported themselves on the surface of 
primmval seas, is, however, worthy of record. 
During the monotony of long tedious voyages, even 
trivial objects are often invested with a strange 
fictitious interest ; the otherwise unoccupied mind 
finding a dreamy pleasure in contemplating the few 
oceanic phenomena which present themselves. The 
vigorous leap of the bonitoes, and the glittering 
bodies of the fl}fing-fish, as they drop exhausted one 
after the other into the sea ; the huge rolling bodies 
of unwieldy black-fish, their dark skins rough with 
barnacles, moving through the water ; the pretty 
white boatswain-bird, with his marline-spike of a 
tail, hovering round the glittering vane at the main- 
mast head ; the azure glint of the dolphins shining; 
through the deep pellucid water ; a passing ship ; 
the capture of a shark; a patch of floating gulf- 
