The Glow Spreads West 49 



the Mediterranean, with their delightful naivete, assumed that the 

 dolphin frolicked in the blue waves because it felt happy, and that 

 it did this especially around ships because it liked men above all other 

 creatures. There is nothing really harmful in this idea; it is charming, 

 whether its causes be rightly or wrongly deduced. 



Despite the fact that a certain kind of fish known in technical 

 parlance as Coryphoena, which changes color when dying, is some- 

 times called by English-speaking seamen "dolphin," the animal to 

 which this name applies by right of some two thousand years of 

 precedence is a small whale (Delphinus delphis), the animal which 

 has given its name to one of the principal families of the Odontoceti, 

 or Toothed Whales. There are several members of the genus, vary- 

 ing considerably in size and in the number of their teeth, but appar- 

 ently all are confined to more limited localities than the common 

 species. One from the Molucca and Torres Straits delights in the 

 name of Delphinus rosiventris; and it is just that, for its underside is 

 rosy pink in color. The common species has an enormous range 

 throughout the warm and temperate seas of the world and extends 

 also to high latitudes by following the Gulf Stream to the Finmark 

 coast. It is particularly common in the Mediterranean and Black Sea 

 and is well known to all the inhabitants of those areas, apparently 

 having made a great impression upon them since the earliest times. 



The dolphin may, in some respects, be said to have symbolized the 

 maritime nations of the Mediterranean just as the eagle did the land 

 powers. It grows to a length of about eight feet, is spindle-shaped, 

 and has a rather puglike, rounded head to which the distinct, six-inch 

 beak seems to have been affixed as an afterthought. The upper parts 

 are shiny black or dark gray, sometimes with a bluish sheen, and 

 the underside is white, often suffused with bands of gray-green. 

 There is a black ring round the eye which, together with the distinct 

 groove between the beak and the forehead, gives the animal a rather 

 notable expression that doubtless had a great deal to do with 

 the unusual personality attributed to the beast by the ancients. 

 There is a sharp dorsal fin and the flippers are also rather narrow and 

 acute. 



The dolphin has from forty to sixty teeth in each half of each jaw, 

 making a total of some two hundred in all. They are small, conical, 

 pointed, set close together, and slightly recurved, and they interlock 



