THE VOYAGE. 29 



ing, the slightest idea of the changing, flashing, 

 glowing radiance that plays around and upon 

 this fish, when fresh from the ocean, is as impos- 

 sible as to describe the colours of the Aurora, or 

 the phosphorescence of the tropical seas ; it must 

 be witnessed to be realised in all its magnifi- 

 cence, Flying-fish are its favourite food, and 

 these the dolphins course as greyhounds course 

 hares ; what is called ' flying ' being merely an ex- 

 tended leap, aided by the immensely-elongated 

 pectoral fins, made in sheer desperation to es- 

 cape the voracious sea-hounds so hotly pursuing 

 them. 



In reference to these same flying-fish, the 

 species washed on board the ' Parana ' by the 

 waves of the turbulent Atlantic, and that found 

 their way into the stomach of a dolphin of ter- 

 restrial habits, was Exocetus exiliens. I could 

 see nothing of its movements, as the sea simply 

 washed it into the sponsons, or left it floundering 

 on the deck. Its general appearance was exactly 

 like a newly-caught herring : the scales, thin and 

 rounded, easily detached, and adhered to the 

 hand ; the back a light steel-blue, with greenish 

 reflections, shading into silvery whiteness on the 

 sides ; the pectoral fins reached quite to the tail, 

 and were shaped like the wings of a swift ; the 



