hand, and you were asleep in an instant.

Although I could not avoid yielding in a great measure to the
general languor, still at times I contrived to shake off the
spell, and to appreciate the beauty of the scene around me. The
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 well 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 often 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
villainous footpad of the seas, would come skulking along, and,
at a wary distance, regard us with his evil eye. At times, some
shapeless monster of the deep, floating on the surface, would, as
we approached, 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,