164 SPOET IN NOKTH AMERICA. 



and were pulled up short, they leapt into the air and 

 sometimes got loose. When, however, they failed 

 in this, we played them until they were tired and we 

 could pull them alongside and haul them up on 

 deck, where they jumped about from side to side, 

 until suddenly the body stiffened, and the gigantic 

 creature was dead. 



The dolphins of the Gulf of Mexico go about in 

 parties of five or six, hunting their prey, as it were, 

 in a pack. Their favourite game is the flying fish 

 or the sea perch, which they will snap up under the 

 very sides of the ship. It is most amusing to watch 

 the dolphins in pursuit of the flying fish. The only- 

 means of escape in the power of the latter is the 

 rapidity of its fiight. They dart into the air, along 

 the surface of the water, spreading out their fins, 

 which are like large wings, and flying like a covey 

 of partridges when flushed in a clover field. The 

 flight is not a long one, however, and the dolphins, 

 by watching them, manage to catch the laggards as 

 they fall again into the sea. One of the most 

 remarkable circumstances about the dolphins is the 

 mutual affection which they manifest towards each 

 other. "When one of them is caught by a hook or 

 harpoon, all the others who are free surround him, 

 and seem to wish to succour him; and when the 

 captured creature has expended all its strength and 

 is hoisted out of the water, its comrades seem to sigh 

 over and bewail its fate. Yet a moment afterwards 



