influence
of an ocean current which rendered difficult or impossible a voyage from
these regions to India, and which therefore must have tended in a
southerly direction. In this current we have no difficulty in
recognising that of Mozambique. On the other hand, that the rukh had an
expanse of wing of thirty paces, and that it could lift an elephant in
its talons, are of course utterly incredible assertions.

The rukh therefore holds a position in bird-lore intermediate between
that of the phoenix and that of the pelican fed upon the blood of its
mother whose beak is tipped with red, or that of the barnacle goose, of
which the name suggests the mollusc,[1] the barnacle, and which was said
to proceed from the mollusc or that of the bird of paradise, the feet of
which were cut off by the Malay traders who sold the skins, and which
were commonly reported never to have had feet, but to float perpetually
in the air.

Thus two streams united into one floated the conception of the rukh--a
mythological stream taking its rise from the simourgh of the Persians
and a stream of fact taking its rise in the observation of a real bird
which visited certain islands off the south-east coast of Africa, and
which is said to have resembled an eagle and may have been a sea-eagle.
With commendable reticence lexicographers tell us that 'rukh' was the
name of a bird of mighty wing.

[1] I.e., a fabulous mollusc; the barnacle is not now regarded as a
mollusc.

THE PENGUINS AND THE SEALS
OF THE ANGRA DE SAM BRAS

There exists an anonymous narrative of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama
to India under the title _Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama em
MCCCCXCVII_. Although it is called a roteiro, it is in fact a purely
personal and popular account of the voyage, and does not contain either
sailing directions or a systematic description of all the ports which
were visited, as one might expect in a roteiro. There is no reason to
believe that it was written by Vasco da Gama. An officer in such high
authority would not be likely to write his narrative anonymously. The
faulty and variable orthography of the roteiro also renders improbable
the hypothesis that Vasco da Gama was the author.

The journal of the first voyage of Columbus contains many allusions to
the birds which were seen in the course of it by the great discoverer.
In this respect the roteiro of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama
resembles it. The journal of Columbus