Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/83

 A WHALE IN SIGHT. 63 forwards from sea to sky, might perchance reveal îts own spécial secret ; and happy are those mînds which are capable of a due appréciation of the mysterics of air and océan. Above the surface as well as belovv, the restless flood îs ever teamîng vvith animal life ; and the passengers on board the " Pilgrim " derived no little amusement from watching great flocks of birds migrating northwards to escape the rigour of the polar winter, and ever and agaîn descending in rapid flight to secure some tiny fish. Occasionally Dick Sands would take a pistol, and now and then a rifle, and, thanks to Mr. Weldon's former instructions, would bring down various spécimens of the feathered tribe: Sometimes whîte pétrels would congregate in consi- dérable numbers near the schooner ; and sometimes pétrels of another species, with brown borders on their wings, would. corne in sight ; now there would be flocks of damiers skimming the water ; and now groups of penguins, whose clumsy gait appears so ludicrous on shore ; but, as Captain Hull pointed out, when their stumpy wings were employed as fins, they were a match for the most rapid of fish, so that sailors hâve often mistaken them for bonitos. High over head, huge albatrosses, their outspread wings measuring ten feet from tip to tîp, would soar aloft, thencc to swoop down towards the deep, into which they plungcd their beaks in search of food. Such incidents and scènes as thèse were infinité in theîr varicty, and it was accordingly only for minds that were obtuse to the charms of nature that the voyage could be monotonous. On the day the wind shifted, Mrs. Weldon was walking up and down on the " Pilgrim's " stern, when her attention was attracted by what seemed to her a strangc phenomenon. AU of a sudden, far as the eye could reach, the sea had assumed a reddish hue, as if it were tingcd with blood. Both Dick and Jack were standing close behind her, and she cried, — that IS making the water so strange a colour ?
 * Look, Dick, look ! the sea is ail red. Is it a sea-^^^d