eautiful or grotesque, that they assume. One can
imagine he sees towns, hills, castles with tall towers, ships, and a
thousand other objects in their flitting shapes, but yet scarcely
formed ere they lose their evanescent beauty both of form and color,
as the sun mounts above the horizon.

The animal kingdom of the tropical ocean is extraordinarily rich and
varied. The sea birds are distinguished by their size, and beauty of
plumage, and greatly surpass those that belong to the north. Thousands
of flying fish spring above the surface, in order to escape some
lurking enemy below, only to find their death on the deck of the ship,
but oftener to fall an easy prey to some rapacious bird. Nothing can
equal the gay colors of the Bonito and Dorado, a smaller kind of
ravenous fish peculiar to the Southern seas, and which are always
found in close pursuit of their neighbors, the flying fish. With what
enchantment does the astonished spectator fasten his gaze upon the
lightly moving waters. His eye penetrates the depths that lie far
below the crystal surface, and is lost in wonder at beholding the
myriads of living creatures with which the mighty ocean teems! Not a
moment but what presents some new and interesting subject for inquiry
or contemplation, thus breaking in pleasantly on the otherwise
monotonous current of sea life.

So the day passes over, full of interest, if man will only take the
trouble to secure it; and the sun that here regularly measures his
diurnal course in twelve hours, is declining to his setting. Again the
attendant clouds, that at times assume the appearance of burning
volcanoes, gather around him, as though to curtain him as he sinks to
rest, but as his glancing rays reflected on the smooth water are
refracted in gushing vapors, thousands of fireballs seemed to rise as
from a crater, and streams of burning lava to flow into the ocean. At
length the sun is hidden beneath the waves; for a few minutes the
western horizon is like a sea of glowing purple, and then night comes,
shrouding all in her darksome veil. But there is no gloom; thousands
of stars far brighter than those of northern lands glitter in the
firmament, and are mirrored in the chrystal waters; fiery meteors dart
through the heavens, and the whole surface of the ocean is covered
with luminous insects.

Pleasant as is life on shipboard, even in a slow voyage, when with
sufficient wind, which is mostly the case in this latitude, to
keep the