CHAPTER XVIII 

 THE DOLPHIN 



WHEREFORE, or when, or how sailors as a class 

 agreed to call the lovely fish which is the sub- 

 ject of the present sketch a Dolphin is and 

 must remain a mystery. It is the source of endless 

 confusion, this mixing up of mammals and fish by 

 calling them the same name, yet, such is the intense 

 conservatism of the seafarer and the perfect continuity 

 of tradition as regards nomenclature, that it seems im- 

 possible that the Coryphaena should ever be called by 

 the sailor anything but a Dolphin, or the Dolphin 

 {Delphinidae) anything but a porpoise, or indeed any 

 of the smallest mammalia of the sea with the exception 

 of the seals. 



Sailors are as a class exceedingly unobservant and 

 careless in their classification of the most familiar 

 fauna of the sea, but once a fish or bird has a name 

 given it, that name, however absurd, is bound to stick, 

 and no amount of light shed upon the creature's habits, 

 etc., will ever cause it to be altered. Perhaps after 

 this small explanation I may be permitted the privilege 

 of an old sailor, and call my subject, in defiance of 

 scientific rules, the Dolphin. It is an easier name at 

 any rate than Coryphaena. 



The principal characteristic of this marvellously 

 beautiful denizen of the deep sea is its iridescent 

 colouring, of blue and gold principally, but so modified 

 and changeable by each passing mood or pose of the 



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