22 TROPICAL TROLLING. 



The ('olphin, "coryphena," is a widely roaming 1 fish, which may 

 occasionally turn up in any part of the ocean, but is seldom found in 

 any particular place. I had never hooked or caught one, nor seen a 

 living one, although a friend once took at Nassau three small ones 

 which he showed to me. The fish is very strangely shaped, the head 

 being very large and the whole body thinning away toward the tail. 

 The back fin runs nearly the whole length and is very high, and the 

 tail is deeply forked, narrow in the blades and very wide. In color 

 the fish is indescribably beautiful. The great back fin is greenish 

 purple with bright blue spots ; the body varies from brilliant gold to 

 old gold, profusely studded with large spots of the most brilliant 

 blue, and the fins and tail are golden. These colors begin to fade as 

 soon as the fish is dead and, within an hour, all brilliancy has dis- 

 appeared and the fish shows only various shades of whitish, yellow- 

 ish, brown and grey, the blue having practically all vanished. 



As April came on the wind became especially light and uncertain, 

 so that a sail boat was practically useless for trolling, and I was some- 

 times compelled to engage a motor boat to get any fishing at all. The 

 first day this happened I invited a couple of guests to go with me. 

 It was very rainy, dark and dismal, a most unusual thing, and we ran 

 down nearly to the western point of the island without taking a single 

 fish. On the way home, however, we ran into a school of small 

 dolphin. One struck the hook, made a tremendous leap, at least six 

 feet into the air and twenty feet long, and got away. Then one of 

 my friends hooked another. Being entirely inexperienced in such 

 fishing he was pretty nearly helpless, especially with such a ferociously 

 active quarry on the end of his line. Seeing that he was making heavy 

 work of it I said, "Do you want me to take your rod?" and he 

 answered, "T wish to the Lord you would." So we made the exchange 

 and, after twenty minutes of most active play, rushing, leaping and 

 general cavorting, the fish came to gaff. My camera was not on 

 board and, by the time the fish had reahed the house, the sun was 

 down, but I hurried to get the camera, hung up the fish and took 

 half a dozen pictures, varying the exposure on account of the uncer- 

 tainty of the light. One of these gave a satisfactory negative, which 

 is reproduced in this article. This picture was taken about three 

 hours after the fish left the water and the colors are very dull. This 

 particular dolphin was thirty-seven inches long and weighed fourteen 

 pounds. I did not know its edible qualities, but had this one cooked 



