THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 261 



not agreed as to whether this is a prolonged leap or a flight. 

 I should call it a flight, for the reason that the distance cov- 

 ered is so great that no possible velocity acquired in the wa- 

 ter could carry them through the air without additional im- 

 pulse from the broad wing-like fins. Again, the flight is to 

 windward when the fish is free to choose, that is, against 

 the greatest resistance ; and it is not in a straight line, but 

 curves very considerably, especially toward the end of the 

 flight. A leap, we would suppose, would continue in a 

 straight line, as in the case of the long-leaping dolphin and 

 other leaping fish. It is observed that the flying-fish touch- 

 es the surface merely long enough to moisten the wings, 

 and its motion through the air is certainly attended by a 

 vibratory motion of the fins, if we may judge by their glit- 

 ter in the sunlight. The general opinion with us is, that the 

 flight continues so long as the fins remain moist and tracta- 

 ble, for the flight is especially prolonged in cloudy or rainy 

 weather. The formation of the tail is such as to preclude 

 the idea of its giving an impulse sufficient to carry the fish 

 three or four hundred feet through the air, arid to attain the 

 altitude of the hammock nettings of a frigate. Moreover, the 

 great fins, however closely folded to the body, must prove a 

 serious impediment to motion in the water ; and for this and 

 other reasons we believe they actually fly, and are in reality 

 as well as name flying-fishes. 



The dolphin, or coryphene, is the most active and deadly 

 of its marine enemies. It pursues the flying-fish by immense, 

 and rapidly repeated leaps in the air, and its darting motion 

 furnishes a fine contrast with the waving, uncertain flight of 

 its timid prey. The pursuing fish streams through the wa- 

 ter like a streak of azure light ; so rapid is its motion that 

 the form of the fish is lost to the eye, and it launches in the 

 air, in a high, arching, exceedingly graceful bound of thirty 

 or forty feet. Then, dropping into the sea for an instant, it 



