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myNotes
September 5

09:15

22 Still playing the air currents around the island so I can watch them.
They have a great curiosity for my balloon, circling high, but rarely
drawing too close to the gondola. Difficult for me to see their bodies or
faces more clearly. They seem wary of me; the sight of my spyglass makes
them scatter in an instant. I wonder why?

23 With a start I realized that these creatures could have been
responsible for damaging his balloon. Had they tested the material with
their sharp claws, torn enough little gashes to make it sink?

17:47
24 They do not land. In all the time I’ve been observing, they haven’t
landed in the trees or on the water. They feed low over the island, preying
on all manner of birds. They are voracious hunters. They also eat fish,
strafing the water and plunging their rear claws into the sea as they brake.
They come up with fish or small squid. They lift them high then flip them
up to their mouths and take them whole. Sometimes they drop their prey
and then dive down and snatch it into their mouths.

September 6
11:17

25 I have counted twenty-six of the creatures.
26 I wish Kate could see them, the way they gambol and swirl through the
air. I’ve never seen an animal look so at home in its element. Like dolphins
or porpoises or whales, they clearly love to play. Why has no one ever seen
these before? Their natural camouflage is excellent, but with so many
airships aloft now, surely someone else must have seen these creatures?
Or are there very few? Are these the only ones in existence?

27 On the next page was another sketch, of a great flock—or a herd, I
wasn’t sure what to call them—of these things circling over the coast of

the island.

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