sky presented a clear
expanse of the most delicate blue, except along the skirts of the horizon,
where you might see a thin drapery of pale clouds which never varied their
form or colour. The long, measured, dirge-like swell of the Pacific came
rolling along, with its surface broken by little tiny waves, sparkling in
the sunshine. Every now and then a shoal of flying fish, scared from the
water under the bows, would leap into the air, and fall the next moment
like a shower of silver into the sea. Then you would see the superb
albicore with his glittering sides, sailing aloft, and after describing an
arc in his descent, disappear on the surface of the water. Far off, the
lofty jet of the whale might be seen, and nearer at hand the prowling
shark, that villanous footpad of the seas, would come skulking along, and,
at a wary distance, regard us with an evil eye. At times, some shapeless
monster of the deep, floating on the surface, would, as we approach, sink
slowly into the blue waters, and fade away from the sight. But the most
impressive feature of the scene was the almost unbroken silence that
reigned over sky and water. Scarcely a sound could be heard but the
occasional breathing of the grampus, and the rippling at the cut-water.

As we drew nearer the land, I hailed with delight the appearance of
innumerable sea-fowl. Screaming and whirling in spiral tracks, they would
accompany the vessel, and at times alight on our yards and stays. That
piratical-looking fellow, appropriately named the man-of-war's-hawk, with
his blood-red bill and raven plumage, would come sweeping round us in
gradually diminishing circles, till you could distinctly mark the strange
flashings of his eye; and then, as if satisfied with his observation,
would sail up into the air and disappear from the view. Soon, other
evidences of our vicinity to the land were apparent, and it was not long
before the glad announcement of it being in sight was heard from
aloft,--given with that peculiar prolongation of sound that a sailor
loves--"Land ho!"

The captain, darting on deck from the cabin, bawled lustily for his
spy-glass; the mate in still louder accents hailed the mast-head with a
tremendous "Where-away?" The black cook thrust his woolly head from the
galley, and Boatswain, the dog, leaped up between the knight-heads, and
barked most furiously. Land ho! Ay, there it was. A hardly perceptible
blue irregular outline, indicating the bold contour of the l