e were doomed to
disappointment, as the albatross, that was then flying with the ship,
refused to touch the bait, and it was taken up by a frigate bird. It is
said that the albatross is very difficult to catch, as he is exceedingly
wary, and constantly on the lookout for tricks. I am told that a live
albatross standing on the deck of the ship is a very handsome bird. His
back is white, his wings are brown, he has a fine head, carries himself
with great dignity, and has a grand eye and countenance. The bird has a
pink beak and pretty streaks of a rose color on the cheeks. After death
these colors disappear, and are not to be seen in the stuffed specimens
such as are found in museums. A good-sized albatross weighs about twenty
pounds, though, as before stated, he looks very much larger.

"The wonderful thing about this bird is the way he sustains himself in
the air. He sails along above the ship, though she may be steaming
fifteen or sixteen miles an hour, but he does it all with very little
motion. Three or four times in an hour he may give one or two flaps of
his wings, and that is all; the rest is all steady sailing. The
outspread wings sustain the bird, and carry him forward at the same
time. If any man ever invents a successful flying machine, I think he
will do so by studying the movements of the albatross. It is proper to
say that this bird is not at all courageous, and often gives up the fish
that he catches to the piratical frigate bird. It lives mostly on fish,
and is very fond of the carcass of a dead whale, and they tell me that
the longer the whale has been dead, the better does the albatross like
it.

"The superstition of the sailors about its being bad luck to kill an
albatross is not by any means a new one. It is referred to by old
writers, and you will find it mentioned in Coleridge's 'Ancient
Mariner.'

"We have seen a great many flying fish during our voyage, but as we have
seen them before, they are not a great curiosity. The flying motion of
this fish is more fanciful than real. He does not soar in the air like a
bird, but simply leaps from the crest of one wave to the crest of
another. He makes a single dash through the air, and that is all.
Sometimes, when a ship is in the hollow between two waves and the flying
fish is attempting to make his way across, he falls on the deck of the
vessel, but he rarely gets more than fifteen or eighteen feet into the
air, and therefore does not reach the deck of