r long; these were very strong,
and capable of sustaining twenty or thirty pounds. The prevailing color
of the albatross is a slate-white over the upper part of the body and
wings; but the breast and under surface generally are of pure white. Of
course the birds vary in color, but this is the most common description.
Ermine itself is not whiter than the breast of the albatross; living in
the air and bathing constantly in the sea, there is no encounter liable
to soil its purity. The feathers are pearl-like in their lustre. It has
been said that if he pleased, the albatross might breakfast at the Cape
of Good Hope and dine in New York, so swift is it in flight and so
powerful on the wing.

While we were watching from the ship's deck the tireless movements of
these birds, an officer of the "Mararoa" told us that on the previous
voyage some English passengers who had rifles with them shot at the
graceful creatures, but found it almost impossible to hit them. The
deck of a vessel in motion was under any circumstances an uncertain base
from which to take aim; moreover, the birds were always on the wing; and
again, the missiles were bullets, not shot. It is particularly difficult
to calculate distances under such circumstances, and so these marksmen
found it. An albatross was sometimes barely touched by the leaden
messenger, so that the tip of its wing perhaps shed a few feathers, or a
similar effect was produced upon some part of its body; but this did not
serve to frighten them, as the detonation of fire-arms was so unusual a
circumstance at sea. They had not learned the trick of the rifle, and
would require to see the fall of more than one of their number following
its report, before they would connect cause and effect in such a way as
to be a warning to them. These birds are hardy, and must be touched in
some vital point in order to disable them; a slight wound would not
affect them any more than the partial hooking of a fish affects
it,--failing, as is often the case, to prevent it from again biting at
the fatal barb. At last one of the birds at which the Englishmen of the
"Mararoa" were firing was struck in the body, and fell headlong into the
sea. Then it was demonstrated that albatross nature is as cannibalistic
as that of the Russian wolf. The wounded, bleeding, and helpless bird
was almost instantly fallen upon by its late companions and torn quickly
to pieces to fill their greedy crops. "That," said a lady passenger