rd port, in the
shape of a scoop, and placing a lantern above it, gather quite a mess of
them in a brief time. One morning the cook brought himself into special
notice by giving us a fry of the self-immolated creatures. Large
watersnakes appeared at the surface now and again, raising their slimy
heads a couple of feet or more above the waves. These have been known to
board sailing ships by means of a stray rope left dragging in the water,
or through an open port near the surface of the sea. But they would
hardly attempt such feats with a swift gliding steamer, even if a
trailing rope were to offer them the chance. Now and then the ship would
sail for an hour or more through a prolific drift of that queer,
indolent bit of animal life, the jelly-fish. How these waters teemed
with life! Every school-boy knows that the ocean covers three quarters
of the globe, but how few realize that it represents more of organic
life than does the land. It is a world in itself, immense and mighty,
affording a home for countless and manifold forms of life. We are
indebted to it for every drop of water distributed over our hills,
plains, and valleys, for from the ocean it has arisen by evaporation to
return again through myriads of channels. It is a misnomer to speak of
the sea as a desert waste: it is teeming with inexhaustible animal and
vegetable life. A German scientist has, with unwearied industry, secured
and classified over five hundred distinct species of fishes from this
very division of the Indian Ocean; many of which are characterized by
colors as gay and various as those of tropical birds and flowers. Mirage
played us strange tricks, in the way of optical delusion, in these
regions. We seemed constantly to be approaching land that was never
reached, and which, after assuming the undulating shore-lines of a
well-defined coast, at the moment when we should fairly make it, faded
into thin air. Sometimes at night the marvelous phosphorescence of the
sea was fascinating to behold, the crest of each wave and ripple became
a small cascade of fire, and the motion of the ship through her native
element seemed as though sailing through flames. The scientific methods
of accounting for this effect are familiar, but hardly satisfactory to
those who have watched this phenomenon in both hemispheres. We began,
nevertheless, to experience somewhat of the monotony of sea life,
although the most was made of trivial occurrences; for out of the
hundr