SARGASSO WEEDS AND WA\^S 17 



the audience joined me and for awhile we amused 

 ourselves by trying to touch the gambolling dol- 

 phins as they shot up from the water. For half 

 an hour or more we timed individual dolphins with 

 a stop watch, and found that they came up for 

 breath on an average of once every three minutes, 

 the inhalation through the open blow-hole lasting 

 from three-fifths to an entire second. Once we 

 were thoroughly soaked by the plunge of the bow 

 into a deep trough, — a breathless moment when the 

 actual security of our position was forgotten and 

 the whole ocean seemed to overwhelm us. Wlien 

 the dolphins tired of us and rushed away on some 

 suddenly remembered errand, I mounted to the 

 deck and lowered to the two who remained below 

 the long-handled net with which specimens were 

 scooped from the waves. 



Pieces of weed were constantly passing, each one 

 with its assortment of little beings who depended 

 upon it for protection and whose lives were bounded 

 by its fragile shelter. Sitting astride the bulwark, 

 I hauled up a bucket full of weed, lowered an 

 empty one into its place, and carried the catch down 

 to the main deck, where it was put in a tub and 

 carefully examined for its inhabitants. I remem- 

 bered that I was not the first collector in this iden- 

 tical spot, since four centuries earlier a famous ex- 

 plorer had proved himself a worthy carcinologist ; 



"At Dawn They Saw Many More Weeds, 

 Apparently River Weeds, and Among Them 

 A Live Crab, Which the Admiral Kept" 

 (Columbus' Diary). 



