SARGASSO WEEDS AND WAVES 15 



hoppers from a hay-field, and two or three of them 

 skimmed knee-high across my little platform. 



"They Saw" We Read in the Record of 

 Columbus' Voyage, "Vast Schools of Tunny- 

 fish, AND the People on the Nina Killed 

 ONE. The Admiral says that those Indica- 

 tions Came from the West, 'Where, I Hope 

 in the Exalted God in Whose Hands are 

 all Victories, That Land Will Very Soon 

 Appear.' " 



Standing in my pulpit, as I have said, I turned 

 to watch the flyingfish plump back into their briefly 

 deserted element, when a dark shadow shot through 

 the water toward me, — the tunnies had come, — and 

 after this hardly a day passed when from four to 

 forty could not be seen, swift, violet torpedoes keep- 

 ing as steadily in our path as if fastened in some 

 inexplicable outboard manner to our keel. But 

 today they did not remain long. I happened to 

 be looking when the whole school turned, as one 

 fish, and with lightning speed darted out of sight. 

 The reason became apparent when seven advance 

 scouts of a gang of dolphins rushed up and wheeled 

 into line, attracted by the throb of our engines from 

 heaven knows what distance, to that game of which 

 dolphins never seem to tire. 



I don't suppose there is any more inspiring sight 

 than a school of dolphins leaping round a ship. 

 They are so unmistakably and thoroughly enjoy- 

 ing themselves, in their effortless rush and curving, 

 easy leaps, that no one could help feeling that al- 



