What I saw on the west coast of South and North America, and at the Hawaiian Islands.: By H. Willis Baxley, M.D.

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AND TO CALLOA.
Cape-pigeons. They attach themselves to vessels doubling that
Cape and follow them to warmer latitudes, when they return
with any ship they may fall in with going toward their favorite
cruising ground-the tempest-beaten shore of Terra del Fuego.
They leave for a time their inhospitable home for the refuse
thrown overboard by the ship's steward. They are web-footed,
aud very light, from the great quantity of plumage compared
with the size of their bodies; and sitting on the water to eat
their food, they ride the waves with the grace of swans. Time
often hangs heavy on the sailor's hands, and he resorts to fishing and fowling for amusement. The albatross is caught with
baited hook, and the Cape-pigeon and smaller birds by becoming
entangled in a cotton thread floating at one end loose in the
current of air astern caused by the steamer's headway.
Jack, as all sailors are generically called, is in the estimation
of "all the World" a queer animal. And he reciprocates the
questionable compliment by a very unquestionable notion that
"all the world "-among whom he does not desire to be classed,
but prefers to compose that choice and anomalous part thereof referred to by an eminent functionary under the title of "the
rest of mankind "-are not deserving through any merit, either
active or passive, of the salvation of being caught by the foretop
when sinking to perdition. Voracious as sharks, in his opinion
landsmen will steer a fellow awry, and then plunder him when
caught sailing on a wrong tack ashore. And as to knowledge,
of which they boast so loudly, they are fools indeed, in his opinion, who are ignorant of the difference between a jibstay and a
ratlin, or, as in the case of a former Secretary of the Navy, who
is said "not to have known a boatswain from a commodode."
A stroll about the ship affords an opportunity to observe
sailors' habits, and take lessons in nautical discipline, that
might prove useful in other pursuits. At one time Jack is
found busy washing decks-giving them daily a cleanliness and
polish surpassing the parlor floors of fashion; at another skilfully maneuvring immense batteries and handling them with
a celerity and precision and with a general perfection of ordnance drill that would justify the conclusion that he had never
been familiar with the use of a "squilgee" and a "swab."
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