To an inland boy, such as Perry, every detail of the steamer was of interest. Some of the members of the expedition, who had rather dreaded the idea of a boy as a member of their party, were most cordial to the lad when he showed himself at the same time quiet and eager to learn. To one of the younger men, Antoine Marcq, a Belgian scientist, Perry was especially attracted, and they chummed up right away. Antoine told him that he had a young brother, about Perry’s age. The Belgian proved a most delightful companion, full of stories and with a true scientific imagination. Until the steamer drew clear of the harbor and began to meet the bobbles of a choppy sea, he regaled the lad with adventures from ports all over the world, all of which, it seemed from his yarns, he had visited at some time or other. But the afore-mentioned bobbles gave the ship a wriggling motion of which the boy, at first slightly, then seriously, disapproved, and for the next couple of days even Antoine’s yarns lost their interest. It was the lad’s first sea voyage. The first morning that he got over his sea-sickness sufficiently to eat a hearty breakfast, which was the third day out, the lad’s attention was attracted to a large gull which was swooping in circles about the masthead. He pointed to it. “What is that, Antoine?” he asked. “A booby?” For he remembered having read somewhere about a booby having been the name of a sea-bird and the word had stuck in his memory. “A booby, oh no, oh no,” said Antoine, with a doubling of the negative that was a marked characteristic in his speech, “no booby as far north as this! It is one of the sea-gulls, a black-backed gull.” “I thought all birds that flew over the sea were sea-gulls,” remarked Perry. “Not at all, not at all,” replied the other. “I show you in a minute.” He paused. “See?” he added, pointing to a bird a little smaller than the gull that had attracted Perry’s attention. “That is a cousin of the ‘booby.’ It is a gannet. If you look, you can see that his neck is longer and that his chest looks different from the black-backed gull. That is because he has a long breastbone and the ribs are set in at a different angle, so, when he plunges into the water with a big splash after a fish, he does not hurt himself when he hits the water. You can dive?” “Oh, yes,” answered Perry, “I’m quite a decent swimmer.” “You know that when you dive, if you hit the water ‘smack,’ it hurts?” “You bet it does.” “The gannet drops suddenly, and so the pointed breastbone does for the diving bird what you do when you put your hands in front of you. It divides the water.” “That ought to make them good fish-catchers, I should think.” “The very best, the very best,” agreed Antoine. “The gannet is a relative of the cormorant, and you know the Chinese train the cormorants to go and fish for them.” “And bring back the fish?” “Yes, yes.” “I should think the cormorant would eat the fish himself.”