574 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



such as the shark, and the sea-birds ; its enemies abound in the air 

 and water. If it succeeds in escaping the Charybdis of the water, 

 the chances are in favour of its coming to grief in the Scylla of 

 the atmosphere if it escapes the jaws of the shark, it will probably 

 fall to the share of the sea-gull. The dolphin is also a formidable 

 enemy to the much-persecuted flying-fish. Captain Basil Hall gives 

 a very animated description of their mode of attack.* He was in a 

 prize, a low Spanish schooner, rising not above two feet and a half out 

 of the water. " Two or three dolphins had ranged past the ship in all 

 their beauty. The ship in her progress through the water had put 

 up a shoal of these little things (flying-fish), which took their flight 

 to windward. A large dolphin which had been keeping company 

 with us abreast of the weather gangway at the depth of two or three 

 fathoms, and as usual glistening most beautifully in the sun, no sooner 

 detected our poor dear friends take wing than he turned his head 

 towards them, darted to the surface, and leaped from the water with a 

 velocity little short, as it seemed to us, of a cannon-ball. But though 

 the impetus with which he shot himself into the air gave him an 

 initial velocity greatly exceeding that of the flying-fish, the start 

 which his fated prey had got enabled them to keep ahead of him for a 

 considerable time. The length of the dolphin's first spring could not 

 be less than ten yards, and after he fell we could see him gliding like 

 lightning through the water for a moment, when he again rose, and 

 shot upwards with considerably greater velocity than at first, and of 

 course to a still greater distance. In this manner the merciless 

 pursuer seemed to stride along the sea with fearful rapidity, while his 

 brilliant coat sparkled and flashed in the sun quite splendidly. As he 

 fell headlong in the water at the end of each leap, a series of circles 

 were sent far over the surface, for the breeze, just enough to keep 

 the royals and topgallant studding-sails extended, was hardly felt as 

 yet below. 



" The group of wretched flying-fishes, thus hotly pursued, at length 

 dropped into the sea; but we were rejoiced to observe that they 

 merely touched the top of the swell, and instantly set off again in a 

 fresh and even more vigorous flight. It was particularly interesting 

 to observe that the direction they took now was quite different from 

 the one in which they had set out, implying but too obviously that 



* "Lieutenant and Commander," by Captain Basil Hall. Bell & Daldy, London. 



