172 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



was just after dinner : a shoal of dolphins were amusing 

 themselves under the bows, when our captain went forward, 

 took his harpoon, and stationed himself on the bowsprit. 

 He watched his opportunity, poised his weapon, and trans- 

 fixed a fine fellow in the back. The animal rushed away 

 with the speed of lightning, but the barb was fast, and so was 

 the rope attached to it : the sailors hauled him to the sur- 

 face of the water, where he tossed and plunged with amaz- 

 ing force, while the red life-blood gushed from his wound in 

 torrents, dying the water all around. We were fearful of 

 losing him ; for one barb of the harpoon was out, and the 

 point of the other was protruded through the skin : his hide 

 must have been very tough, or his tremendous struggles 

 would certainly have freed him from so slender a hold. After 

 many trials and failures we at length got the bight of a rope 

 under his huge tail, and another over his breast fins, and 

 hauled him on deck, with the warm blood still spouting 

 from his gaping wound. The mate, however, cut his throat, 

 and he was dead almost instantly ; but not before he had 

 well lashed the deck with his muscular tail. I took an ac- 

 curate drawing of him as he lay. He measured seven feet 

 ten inches from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail : 

 one foot four inches from the insertion of the back fin to the 

 belly (that is, in perpendicular diameter) ; two feet four 

 inches from tip to tip of the pectoral fins ; the tail was two 

 feet in width ; the snout, from the tip to the angle of the 

 eye, one foot. The blowhole on his forehead was very emi- 

 ous ; it was circular, about an inch in diameter, and was 

 closed by a valve. When it was cut open, we found that 

 the orifice considerably enlarged a little below the surface, 

 and was lined with a very soft black skin. The eye was of 

 a transparent blue colour, and gleamed in some lights like 

 the eyes of cats, &c. The teeth were very small, regular, 

 and beautiful ; those of the upper jaw fitting into the inter- 



