The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 19, 1898, Page 24

24 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 1898. / . e e A ol HE boat's an old P. and O. lifeboat,” said Mr. Mc- Todd, ‘‘diagonal bullt of t and quite big enough for the purp: Of course, something with steam better, because we're both steamer s out of the question. That would mean too many to share. So the thing is, can you buy this lifeboat and victual her for the trip? I'm no what ye might call a capitalist myself just for the mo- me Captain Kett e eyed the grimy serge his companion with disfavor. You don’t look it,”” he “That last engine-room you got sacked from mut have been a mighty fiithy place.” “'Twas,” sald McTodd. “But, as it happened, I didn’t get the sack. I ran from her here in Gib, because I'd no wish to get back to England and have this news useless in my pocket. And, of course, I hgd to let slide the £8 In wages that was due to me Kettle gave up pacing the room and sat himself on the edge of the table and frowned. “I don't see the use of taking either Antonio, if that's his name, or your other Dago. I don’t like the breed of them. You and I would be quite enough to handle an open boat, and quite able to take care of ourselve: the wreck’s got the money on her, and we finger it, we'll promise to bring them back their share all right; and if the thing's a fizzle, as it's very likely to be, they'll be saved a very unpleasant boat cruise.” “It's no go,” said the engineer, “and you may make up your mind to have them as shipmates, captain, or sit here on your tail where you are. I don't trust them no more than a stripped thread. And they don't trust me. They would not trust the provost of Edinboro if he was to make similar proposals to them.” “I'd met Tonio in 1 . He was a greaser on _a boat there, and I.was her se some English —coast English—and h I give Tonlo credit; he spat out his tale and his mate were in the stoke hold of a teamboat coming from the River Plate to Gen calling at some of the stern Islands en route. ( ¢ht they were just golng watch and were | e rail to get a breath B cool air before turning | y we aming past e rocky islands and there n sight of them was a vessel hard and fast ast < no_mistake about ; they both saw her; a stea at % tons. And what was more, the other Port Tonto’s friend, sald he knew her. Accerding to hi s the Duncansby e w Head. He'd served in her s Id three voyages, and he said he’d know her anywhere.” “A_dago’s word Isn't worth much for a thing like that,” =aid Kettle. “Walit & bit. The pair of them stayed where they were and looked at it the rest of the watch on deck. The sec- ond mate on the bridge was staring ahead sleeplly; the quartermaster at the wheel was nodding and blinking at the binnacle; the lookout on the forecastle was seated on a fife rail, snoring; no one of thes seen the wreck. se had “And so Antonio and his mate told the other dago that they had seen the wreck?” “Not much! They kept their heads shut. There was money in the idea. So there you have the whole yarn, except that they got to know that the Duncanspy was on her way home after a long spell of tramping when she got into trouble, and carried all the money she'd earned in good solid gold in the charthouse drawer.” “Very well,” said Kettle. “And now let's get a move on us It would be unprofitable to follow in detail the fitting out of the wrecking expedition upon insufficient capital, and so be it briefly stated that the old lifeboat (which had ;&ssed through many hands since she was cast from the & O. service) was purchased by dint of haggling for an absurdly small sum, and victualed and watered for eigh- teen days. The Portugue who still refused to disclose the precise location of the wreck, said that it might take a fortnight to reach her, and prudence would have sug- gested that it was advisable to take at least a month's rovisions. But the meagerness of their capital fiatly for- ade this, and they were only able to furnish the boat with what would spin out to eighteen days on an uncom- fortably short ration. They trusted that what pickings they might find in the storerooms of the wreck herselt would provide them for the return voyage. The voyage did not begin with prosperity. ways a Strong surface current running through the straits. and just then the breezes were iight. The life- boat was a dull sailer, and her people, in consequence, had the mortification of keeping Carnero Point and the frown- ing rock behind in sight for three baking days. The two Portuguese were first profane, then sullen, then fright- ened; some saint’'s day, it appeared, had been violated by the start, and they began first to hint at and then to in- sist on a return. To which Kettle retorted that he was going to see the matter through now if he had to hang in the straits for the whole eighteen days, and subsist for the rest of the trip upon dew and their belts, and In this McTodd backed him up. Once started ana away from the whisky bottle, there was nothing very yielding about Mr. McTodd. Only one compromise did Kettle offer to make. He would stand across and drop his Portuguese partners on the African shore if they, on their part, would disclose the whereabouts of the wreck, and in due time, when the dividends were gathered, he faithfully promised them their share. But to this they would not consent. At last, however, a kindly slant of wind took the life- boat in charge and hustled her wetly out into the broad Atlantic, and when they had run the shores of Europe and Africa out of sight, then Senor Aritonio saw fit to give Captaln Kettle a course. ““We was steamin’ froma Teneriffe to Madeira when we saw thosa rocks with DuncanshY Head asho’.”” “H'm,” said Kettle. “Those'll be the Saivage Islands.” teamah was pile up on de first. pass after.” *“That’s Piton Island, if I remember. Let's have a loox at the chart.”” He handed over the tiller to McTodd, took a tattered admiralty chart from one of the lockers and spread it on the damp floor gratings. The two Portuguese helped with their brown paws to keep it rrom flutterin, away. ‘“Yes, either Little Piton or Great Plton. Whic! side did you pass it on?"’ Antonio thumped a gunwale of the lifeboat. "Ke%! it on the port hand going north, did you? Then that'll be Great Piton, and a sweet shop it is for reefs ac- cording to this chart. I wish I'd a directory. It will be a regular cat’s dance getting in.’” “‘Those Canary fishing schooners land on the Salvages BPDX{‘IEHmGS." sald McTodd, “so I heard once in Las almas.” There is al- ‘Nother island we ““Then there’ll be fleas on the islands, whatever else there is,” said Kettle. *“I guess we've got to take our chances, Mac. If the old wreck's been overhauled before we get there it's our bad luck; if she hasn’t been skimmed clean we'll take what there is, and I fancy we shall be men enough to stick to it. It isn't as if she was piled up on some civilized beach, with coast guards to take possession, and all the rest of it. The islands are either Spanish or Portugee. At the shortest we've got 700 miles of biue water ahead of us.” Open-boat voyaging in the broad Atlantic may have its pleasures, but these, such as they were, did not appeal to either Kettle or his companions. By day the sun scorched them with intolerable glare and violence; by night the clammy sea mists drenched them to the bone. For a larger vessel the weather would have been accounted fa- vorable; for their cockle-shell it was once or twice terrific. In this guise, then, they ended their voyage, which had spun out to nifh upon 1000 miles, through contrary winds and the necessity for incessant tacking; and in the height of one blazing afternoon there rose the tops of the islands out of a twinkling turquoise sea. These nfppenred first as mere dusty black rocks sticking up out of the calm blue—Great Salvage island to the northward, and Great Piton to the south and beyond—but they grew as the boat neared them, and presently ap- peared to be built upon a frieze of dazziing feathery whiteness. Great Salvage Island drew abeam, and passed away astern; Great Piton lay close ahead now, fringed with a thousand reefs, each with its spouting breakers. The din of the surf came to them laudly up the wind. A flock of seafowl, screaming and circling, sailed out to escort them in. And ahead, behind the banks of breakers, drawing them on as water will draw a choking man, was the rusted smokestack and stripped masts of a derelict mer- chant steamer. There is a yarn about an open boat which had voyaged 1200 miles over the lonely Pacific, coming upon a green atoll, and being sailed recklessly in through the surf and drowning every soul on board, and the yarn is easily be- lievable. Captain Kettle and his companions had under- one horrible privations; here at last was the isle of their opes, and the treasure (as it seemed) in fuil view; but by some intolerable fate they were barred from it by relent- less walls of surf. Kettle ran in as close as he dared, and then flattened in his sheets and salled the Iifeboat close- hauled along the noisy line of breakers to the norrard, looking for an opening. The two Portuguese grumbled openly, and, when not a ghost of a landing place showed itself, and Kettle put her about to sail back again, even the cautious McTodd put up his word to ‘“run in and risk it." But Kettle, though equally sick as they were of the boat and her voyage, had all a sailor's dislike for losin, his ship, whatever she might be, and cowed them all witl volce and threats, and at last his forbearance was re- warded. A slim passage through the reefs showed itself at the southern end of the island, and down- it they dodged, trimming their sheets six times a minute, with an escort of dangers always close on either hand, and finally ;vn;x‘el:m a rocky bay, which held comparauvely smooth There was no place to beach the boat; they had to an- chor her off, but with a whip on the cable they/were able (UTUFFE | HYAR. touch, and in the end she shot out into clear deep water 10 step ashore on a ledge of stone and then haul the boat off again out of harm'’s way. ht at It may be thought that they capered with flellgf m& treeuung on dry land again, but there was nothing of this. With their cramped limbs and disused joints it was as much as they could do to hobble, and every step was a wrench. But the lure ahead of them was great enough to triumph over minor difficulties. Half a mile away along the rocks was the Duncansby Head, and for her lhe;{ raced at the top of their crippled galt. And the seafow! scrcamed curiously above thelr heads. i They scratched and tore themselves in this frantic progress over the sharp volcanic rocks, they choked with thirst, they panted with their labor, but none at_ these things marttered. The deserted steamer, wnen they ca?m to her, was lying off from the shore at the other side of u lake of deep water. But they were fit for no more wait- ing, and each, as he came opposite her, waded out of his depth and swam off with eager strokes. Davit falls trail- {ng in the water gave them an entrance way, and up th_esa they climbed with the quickness of apes, and’ then with one accord they made for the pantry ana the steward's storeroom. The gold which had lured them was forgotten; the immediate needs of their famished bodies were the only things they remembered. They found a cheese, a hox of musty biscuit and a filter full of stale and tepid water, and they gorged till they were filied, and swore they liad never sat to so delicious a meal. With repletion came the thoughts of fortune again, and oft they went to the chart house to finger the coveted gold. ut here was a disappointment ready and waiting tor them. They had gone up in a body, neither nationality trusting the other, and together they ransacked the placa with thoroughness. There were papers in abundance, there were clothes furry with mildew, there was a broken box of cheap cigars, but of money there was not so much as a bronze plece. “Eh, well,” said Kettle, sitting back on the musty bed clothes, “we have had our trouble for nothing. Sone one's been here-first and skinned the place clean. “Weel said McTodd, rubbing his thumb tightly into his finger’s end, “if I were a swearer I courd say a great eal.” “The dagos are swearing enough for the whole crowd of us, to judge by the splutter of them. The money's gone clean; it's vexing, but that’s a fact. Still, I don't like to go back empty-handed.” . “I'm as keen as yoursel’. There’s that £8 of my wages 1 left when I ran in Gib that's got to be made up somehow. What's wrong with getting off the hatcnes and seeing how_her cargo’s made up?” “She’s loaded with hides. I saw it on the manifest. There was Jimmy Mulready’s G scrawl at the foot of it. That photo there above the bed foot will be his wife. Poor old Jimmy. He got religion before I did, and started his insurance, too, and if he's kept them both up he and his \\k'llfluw ought to be all right—by James! Did you feel that!” McTodd stared round him. “What?” he asked. “‘She moved.” “I took it for sure she was on the ground.” “So did I. But she isn’t. There, you can feel her lift again. They went out on deck. The sun was already dipping iIn the western sea, behind the central hill of the island, and in another few minutes it would be dark. There is little twilight so far south. So they took crossbearing on the shore and watched lntenllE. Yes, there was not a doubt about {t. The Duncansby Head floated and she was_moving across the deep water lake that held her. “Mon,” said the engineer enthusiastically, “ye've a great head and a great future before you. I'd never have guessed it.” 5 “I took it for granted she's beaten her bottom out in getting here, but she's blundered in through the reefs without touching, and if she's come in she can get out again, and we're the fellows to take her.” “With engines?” “With engines, yes. If she’s badly broken down in the hardware shop we're done. I'd forgotten the machinery, and that's a fact. We'll find a lantern ana I'll go down with you, Mac, and give them an inspect.” The two Portuguese had already sworn themselves to a standstill, and had gene below and found bunks; but the men from the little islands in the north had more energy in their systems, and they expended it tirelessity. McTodd overhauled every nut, every bearing, every valve, every rod of the engines with an expert's criticism, and found nothing that would prevent active working; Kettle rum- maged the rest of the ship; and far into the morning they foregathered again in the charthouse and compared re- sults. She had been swept, badly swept; everything mov- able on deck was gone; cargo had shifted and then shift- ed back again till she had lost all her list and was in proper trim; the engines were still workable if carefully nursed; and, in_fact, though battered, sne was entirely seaworthy. And while, with tired gusto they were com- paring these things weariness at last got the better of them, and first one and then the other incontinently dropped off into the deadest of sleep. That the Duncansby Head had come in unsteered and unscathed through the reefs, and therefore, under steam and control she could go out again, was on the face of it a very simple theory to make; but to discover a passage through the rocks to make it practicable was quite an- other matter. For three days the old P. & O. lifeboat plied up and down from outside the reefs, and had twenty narrow escapes from being smashed into staves. It looked as if nature had performed a miracle and taken the steamer bodily in her arms and lifted her over at least a dozen black walls of stone. The two Portuguese were already sick to.death of the whole business, but for their feelings neither Kettle nor McTodd had any concern whatever. They were useful in the working of the boat, and therefore they were taken along, and when they refused duty or did it with too much listlessness to please they were cuffed into activity again. There was no verbal argument about the matter. “Work or suffer’” was the simple motto the two islanders went upon, and it answered admirably. They knew the breed of the Portuguese of old. At last, by dint of daring and tofl, the secret of the passage through the noisy spouting Treers was won; it was sounded carefully and methodically ror sunken rocks, and noted In all possible ways; and the old P. & O. life- boat was hoisted on_the Duncansby’s davits. The Portu- guese were driven down into the stokehold to represent double watches of a dozen men and make a requisite steam; McTodd fingered the rusted engines like an art- ist, and Kettle took his stand alone with tne steam wheel on _the upper bridge. They had formally signed articles. and apportioned themselves pay, Kettle as master, McTodd as chief en- ‘rlneer. and the Portuguese as firemen, because salvage s apportioned pro rata, and the more pay a man is get- ting the larger is his bonus. On_which account (at Mec- Todd’s suggestion) they awarded themselves paper sti- ends which they could feel proud of. and put down the 'ortuguese for the ordinary fireman’'s wages then pald out of Gibraltar, neither more nor less. For, as the eu- ineer said, “There was a fortune to be divided up some- ow, and it would be a pity for a pair of unclean dagas to have more than was absolutely necessary, seeing that they would not know what to do with it."” Captain Kettle felt it to be one of the supreme mo- ments of his life when he rang on the Duncansby’s bridge telegraph to “half-speed ahead.” Here was a bit for for- tune such as very rarely came In any shmpmasters way; not getting salvage, the larger part of which an owner would finger, for mere assistance; but taking to port a vessel which was derelict and. deserted, the greatest and rarest plum that the seas could offer. It was a thought that thrilled him. But he had not much time for sentimental musings in this strajn. A terribly nervous bit of pllotage lay ahead of him; the motive power of his steamer was feeble and uncertain, and it would require all his skill and resource- fulness to bring her out into deep blue water.- Slowly she backed and went ahead, dodging round to get a square entrance to the fairway; then with a slam Kettle rang on his telegraph to “Full speed ahead.” so as to get her under the fullest possible command. She darted out into the narrow winding lane between the walls of broken water, and the roar of the surf closed round her. Rocks sprung up out of the deep—hungry black rocks as deadly as explosive torpedoes. With a fuil complement of hands and a pilot for vears acquainted with the place, it would have been an infinitely danger- ous plece of navigation: with a half-power steamer which had only one man all told upon her decks, and he almost a stranger to the place, it was a miracle how she got out unscathed. But It was a miracle assisted by the most brilliant skill. Kettle had surveyed the channel in the lifeboat and mapped every rock in his head, and when the test came he was equal to it. It would be hard to come across a man of more iron nerve. Backln? and going ahead, to get round right-angled turns of the fairway, shaving reefs so closely that the wash from them creamed over her rall, the battered old tramp steamer faced a_million dangers for every fathom of her onward way; but never once did she actually and gayly hit dlamonds trom the wave-tops into the sin- shine. 1t is possible for a man to concentrate himself so desp- 1y uponpone thing that he is deaf to ail else in the wol”?o' and until he haq worked the uncansby Head oyt Tho the open Captain Kettle was in this condition. IIe, was dimly conscious of véices hailing him, but he ha e leisure to give them heed. But when the strain was ta }:; off, then there was no more disregarding mevh‘;flfs‘ vn: turned his head and saw a half-sunk raft which se ¥ men with clumsy paddles were frantically laboring to- ward him along the outer edge of the reetj. d e Without a second thought he rang off ensines, and the steamer lost her way and fell off into the 'hugl ass waited for them. From the first he had a foreboding as to who they were; but the men were obviously cas r.‘ma_'s, and by all the laws of the sea and humanity he was bound to rescue them. A e Ponderously the raft paddled up and got u‘ré.er he steamer’s lee. Kettle came down off the bridge a‘v.!‘ threw them the end of the halyard, and eagerly o e they scrambled up the rusted plating, and clamber over the rail. They looked around them' with curiosi )k, but with an obvious familiarity. “I left my pipe Slhur behind that stanchion.” said one, “and by gum,it's thero still.” Fo'c’sle door’s stove in,” said anotner; “I wonder if they’ve scoffed my chest.” “'You Robinson Crusoes seem to be making yourselves at home,” sald Kettle. rat One of the men knuckled his shock of hair. ‘‘We was on her, sir, when she happened her accident. We got -GE in the captain’s boat and she got smashed to bits landing on Great Salvage, yonder. We've been llving there ever since on rabbits and gulls and cockles, till we built that raft and .ferried over here. It was tough living, but guess we were better off than the poor beggars who got swamped in the other boats.” “The other two boats got picked up.” “Djid they, though? Then I call it beastly hard luck on u “Captain Mulready was master, wasn't he? Did he get drowned when your boat went ashore?” The saflor shrugged his shoulders. *“No, sir. Captain Mulready’s on the raft down yonder. He reels all crum- pled up to find the old ship’s afloat and you' got her out. She'd a list on when we left her that would have scared Beresford, but she's chuck(eld that straight again, and who's to believe it was ever there?” Kettle gritted his teeth. “Thank you, my lad,” he said. “I quite see. Now get below and find yourself sgmething to eat, and then go you forrard and turn to.” Then, lean- ing his head over the bulwark, he called down, “Jimmy Srhe broken man on the raft looked up. “Hullo, Kettle, that you?" ‘““Yes, come aboard.” “No, thanks. I'm off to the island. T'll start a picnic there of my own. Good luck, old man.” “If you don't come nla‘hoam willingly, I'll send and have etched. Quit fooling." ym‘x‘olh.‘FM ynur%'fl set on it,”” sald the other tiredly, and scrambled up the rope. He looked around him Wwith a drawn face. *To think she should have lost that list, and righted herself like this. I thought she mignt turn turtle any minute when we quitted her; and I'm not a scarew ither."” oy %o?v you aren’t. Come into the chart house and have a drop of whisky, There’s your missis’ photo stuck up over the bedfoot. ~How's she? 5 “Dead, I hope. It will save her going to the work- house."” & “Oh, rats! It's not as bad as that. «“Tt you'll tell me, why not? I shall lose my ticket over this job, sure, when it comes before the Board of Trade, and what owner’s likely to give me another ship?' “Well, Jimmy, you'll have to sail small and live on your insurance.” YOUI dropped that years ago, and drew out what there was.. Had to—with eight kids, you know. They take a lot of feeding.” “Eight kids? By Jame “Yes, eight kids, poor little beggars, and the missis and me all to go hungry from now onwards. But they do say workhouses are very comfortable You'll look in and see us sometimes, won't you, He lifted the glass which had been handed him luck to you, old man, and you deserve it. ““Here's I bought that whisky from a chandler in Rio. It's a drop of right, isn't 1t 'Here, drop it,” said Kettle. “I'm sorry,” saild Captain Mulready. “But you should not have had me on board. I should have been better picnicking by myself on Great Piton yonder. I can't make a cheerful shipmate for you, old man.” “Brace up,” sald Kettle. By the Lord, if I'd only been a day. earlier with that raft,” said the other musingly, “I could have taken her out, as you have done, and brought her home, and I be- lleve the firm would have kept me on. There need have been no inquiry, only ‘delayed,’ that's all; no one cares 50 long as a ship turns up some time.” “It wouldn't have made any difference,” said Kettle, frowning. ‘‘Some of those lo Portuguese have been on board and scoffed all the money."” ‘“What money?” “Why, what she’d earned. What there was here in the charthouse drawe 5 The disheveled man gave a tired chuckle. ‘Oh, that's all right. I put in at Las Palmas and transferred it to the bank there and sent home the receipt by the B. and A. mall boat to Liverpool. No, I'm pleased enough about the mont Just bei a day too late with that blasted rafy Kettle heard a sound and sharply turned his head. He “Mr. McTodd,” he But it's this other thing I made a bungle of, saw a grimy man in the doorway sald, “who_the mischief gave you leave to quit your en- gine room? Am I to understand you've been standing there in that doorway to listen?” “Her own enginee come back, so I handed her over to him and came on deck for a spell. As for listening, TI've heard every word that's been id. Captain Mul- ready, you have my very deepest condole “Mr. McTodd.,” said Kettle, with a fury, “I'm captain of this ship, and vou're mtruding. Get to Hamlet out of here.” He got up and strode furiously out of the door and McTodd retreated before him. “Now keep your hands off me' sald the engineer, when he had heen driven as far as the end of the fiddley. “T'm as mad about the thing as yourself, ana I don’t mind blowing off a few rounds of temper. 1 @on’t know Cap- tain Mulready, and you do, but I'd hate to see any man all crumpled up like that if T could help it.” “He could be helped by giving him back his ship, and T'd do it if I was by myself. But I've got a Scotch part- ner, and I'm not going to try for the impossible.” “Dinna abuse Scotland,” said McToudd, wagging a grimy forefinger. “It's your ain wife and bairns ye're thinking about.” “I ought to be, Mac, but, God help me, I'm not.” rarra weel,” said McTodd, “then if that's the skipper, just set yve doon here and 5 “T']l hear what you've got to s: civilly, and for the next half-hour the pair of t as earnestly as only poor men can talk when the liberately making up their minds to resign a 1 tune which is already within their reach. And at the end of that talk Captain Kettle pu s hand and took the engineer’'s in a heavy grip. 4 P ‘re Scotch, but you're a gentleman right through under your clothes.” “T was born to that estate, skipper. and T no mors wanted to see von puir deevil pulled down to our level than you do. Better go and give him the news. and T'll get our boat in the water again and revictualed.” “No,” said Kettle, “T can’t stand by and be thanked. You go. I'll see to the boat.” “Be hanged if I do,” said the en; man a letter. You're great on the w: you at it.” And so, in the tramp’s main cabin below, Captain Ket- tle penned this epistle: “To_Cavotain J. R. Mulready: “Dear Jimmy—Having concluded not to take the trouble to work Duncansby Head home, have pleasure in leaving her to your charge. We having other game on hand, have now taken French leave, and shall now bear up for Western Islands. You have no call to say ‘any- thing about our being on board at all. Spin your own yarn; it will never be contradicted. Yours truly neer. “Write the ting line; I've seen “0. KETTLE, Master. “N. A. McTodd, Chief Engineer.—O. K. «“P. 8.—We take along those two Dagos. If you had them they might talk when you got inem home. We having them, they will not talk. So you've only your own crowd to keep from talking. Good luck, old tin tacks.” Which letter was sealed and nailed up in a conspicu- ous place before the lifeboat left en route for Grand Canary. It was the two Portuguese who felt themselves prin- cipally aggrieved men. They had been made to undergo a great deal of work and hardship; they had been defraud- ed of much plunder, which they considered was theirs, for the benefit of an absolute stranger, in whom they took not the slightest interest; and finally they were induced “not to talk” by processes which jarred upon them most unpleasantly. 'hey did not talk, and in the fullness of time they re- turned to the avocation of shoveling coal on steam ves sels. But when they sit down to think, neither Antonio nor his friend (whose name I never learned) regards with affection those little islands in the Northern sea which Kmd“ced Captain Owen Kettle and his sometime partner, Ir. Nell Angus McTodd. But at the same time they have a very proper and wholesome awe for the locality and its inhabitants. STRANGE FISHES, FROGS AND REPTILES THAT FLY IN THE AIR. 4 4 FLYING CRUSTACEAN BALLOON-MAKING SPIDERS. NTIL quite recently it was gener- ally supposed that in order to fly an animal must bave wings. But now It 1s well known that several species of both land and water animals are poesessed of the abil- ity to sustain themselves and move with greater or less rapidity through the air for conslderable dis- tances. other ant in_Russia. It {8 Interesting to know that yet an- mal has lon; problem of aerfal na: as slmsle organization as the crustacean. The discovery was made quite recently Dr. Ostroounoft, along the shores of the Crimea, noticed what he took at first to be gnats, which seemed to leap up out of the water. Hav- i:fi captured some of them he was aston- ished to see that they were not insects FLYING FISH. at all since. solved the gation—and one of | baptized b; tellina Mediterranea. without wings; traveling in a boat in the air as gnat THE SWALLOW OF THE SEA. 2 but crustaceans, which he recog- nized immediately as having been alre Claus with the name of Pon- These singular animals are absolutely | “flying fish,” whi but their feet are gar)-' emy1 ‘l'hey bt . nished with a kind of nap of long hairs, and the extremity of the abdomen car- ries hairy appendices something feathers. 'They do not cut as many antics and mosquitoes, and are only about four hundredths of an inch FLYING FROG. in lem. The size, however, 13 not the impo; t point in ‘this case. It is the fact itself of a crustacean flying. Next to .this fiyi ‘wonder comes the ives in tropical wal e ave broad, wingllke mem- branes on their long side fins. They leap suddenly from the wave and move |of through the air with rapidity for some like the Mediterranean, sometimes called the “swallow of the sea.” After the fish comes the flying frogs of the Sunda Islands. Thelr palmated feet are of comparatively large dimension On one whose bod. in 15:‘“1 Mr. Wi o twenty inches square. FLYING SQUIRREL. members. is different, measured four inch lace found the spread those on an umb: membranous feet to be over Bl Amon, twenty or thirty feet. Nature attains the same end by | North America. By m In company with the flying fish may be | divers means In many cases. To | double skii mentioned &e “du:m’pun v«la.u%Y of lgive the crustacean, the fish and 2 logs, Ehving FLYING DRAGON, the frog the ability to fly she trans- forms as it were the ordinary locomotive ‘With the reptiles, however, it as in the case of dragon, which has the skin stretched ou on the sides by means of false ribs like these may be mentioned the fly- ing squirrel of the forests of Asia and e’n{u g!‘ thtel:r (lhln e, joined to the fore ‘and hind legs, glving them a broad spread ! fiy. THE POLATOUCHE of surface and a long, light tail for a rud- der, they can not only fly from one tree to another several ~hundred feet away, but can change their course at will. .. The paloutauche” of Siberia, the aurists,” with prehensile tails like l'nl..l , are other examples of flying mam- mals. With all these examples of flying verte- brates the ‘“‘pontilline’” is the eyinly‘ one of the Invertebrates so far known that can the’ flyin,