Otters, Cormorants, and Dogs.—­Both otters and cormorants are trained to catch fish for their masters; and dogs are trained by the Patagonians to drive fish into the nets, and to frighten them from breaking loose when the net is being hauled in.  Cormorants, in China, fish during the winter from October to May, working from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., at which hour their dinner is given to them.  When they fish, a straw tie is put round their necks, to keep them from swallowing the fish, but not so tight as to slip down and choke them.  A boat takes out ten or twelve of these birds.  They obey the voice:  if they are disobedient, the water near them is struck with the back of the oar; as soon as one of them has caught a fish, he is called to the boat, and the oar is held out for him to step upon.  It requires caution to train a cormorant, because the bird has a habit, when angry, of striking with its beak at its instructor’s eye with an exceedingly rapid and sure stroke.

SIGNALS.

Colomb and Bolton’s flashing signals, adopted in our Army and Navy, and used in many other countries as well, are eminently suited to the wants of an expedition.  Anything may be used for signalling, that appears and disappears, like a lantern, or an opened and closed umbrella, or that moves, as a waved flag or a person walking to and fro on the crest of a hill against the sky.  Sound also can be employed, as long and short whistles.  Their use can be thoroughly taught in two hours, and however small the practice of the operators, communication, though slow, is fairly accurate, while in practised hands its rapidity is astonishing.  The proportion of time occupied by the flashes and intervals is as follows. (I extract all the rest of the article from the pamphlet published by the inventors of the system.)

Flashing Signals, with Flags.—­Supposing the short flash to be half a second in duration, the long flash should be fully a second and a half.  The interval between the flashes forming a figure should be equal to a short flash, and the interval between two figures should be equal to a long flash.  After the last figure of the signal is finished, there should be a pause equal to at least one-third of the time taken up by the figures.  After this pause, the signal should be again repeated with the same measured flashes and intervals, and so continued until answered by all to whom it is addressed.

[Example of Morse code].

Care must be taken never to commence a fresh signal before the answers to the last have ceased; and signals are never to be answered until their repetitions have been observed a sufficient number of times to make an error impossible.

[Fig. 1 and Fig 2—­sketch of signalling with flags as described below].

The signalman may work from left to right, or from right to left, as shown in figs. 1 and 2, according to convenience and the direction of the wind.  To make a short flash, the flag is waved from a to b, and back to the normal position a.  To make a long flash, the flag is waved from a to c, and back to the normal position a.