tanding on our own continent.

It is an eight days' voyage by steamship from San Francisco to Honolulu,
giving the traveller ample time to familiarize himself with many
peculiarities of this waste of waters. Occasionally a whale is sighted,
throwing up a small column of water as it rises at intervals to the
surface. A whale is not a fish; it differs materially from the finny
tribe, and can as surely be drowned as can a man. Whales bring forth
living young; they breathe atmospheric air through their lungs in place
of water through gills, having also a double heart and warm blood, like
land animals. Flying-fish are frequently seen, queer little creatures,
resembling the smelts of our northern waters. While exhibiting the
nature of a fish, they have also the soaring ambition of a bird.
Hideous, man-eating sharks are sure to follow in the ship's wake,
watching for some unfortunate victim of a sailor or passenger who may
fall overboard, and eagerly devouring any refuse thrown from the cook's
galley. At times the many-armed cuttlefish is seen to leap out of the
water, while the star-fish, with its five arms of equal length, abounds.
Though it seems so apparently lifeless, the star-fish can be quite
aggressive when pressed by hunger, having, as naturalists tell us, a
mysterious way of causing the oyster to open its shell, when it proceeds
gradually to consume the body of the bivalve. One frail, small rover of
the deep is sure to interest the voyager; namely, the tiny nautilus,
with its transparent covering, almost as frail as writing-paper. No
wonder the ancient Greeks saw in its beautifully corrugated shell the
graceful model of a galley, and hence its name, derived from the Greek
word which signifies a ship. Sometimes a pale gray, amber-like substance
is seen floating upon the surface of the sea, which, upon examination,
proves to be ambergris, a substance originally found in the body of the
sperm whale, and which is believed to be produced there only. Scientists
declare it to be a secretion caused by disease in the animal, probably
induced by indigestion, as the pearl is said to be a diseased secretion
of the Australian and Penang oysters. Ambergris is not infrequently
found floating along the shores of the Coral Sea, and about the west
coast of New Zealand, having been ejected by the whales which frequent
these waters. When first taken from the animal it is of a soft texture,
and is offensive to the smell; but after a brief