76 DOLPHINS. 



baited with a large piece of salt pork, 

 by which means his enormous bulk was 

 soon laying its length on the quarterdeck. 

 At another I would watch, with inde- 

 scribable excitement and delight, the ap- 

 parent evolutions of the dolphin, as, in 

 pursuit of his prey, that would fre- 

 quently fly over the ship, he would 

 bare his golden back, and blow with his 

 wide nostrils the spray from before him, 

 till, after an unsuccessful chase, our men 

 would find means to land him too on 

 the quarterdeck ; and then did I witness 

 the truth of a description a noble 

 poet, from his own observation, after- 

 wards so beautifully drew of the death 

 of that remarkable denizen of the ocean, 

 and my memory has often been alive to 

 the aptitude and nicety of the simile : 



" Parting day 



Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang embues 

 With a new colour, as it gasps away 

 The last still loveliest till 'tis gone, and all is gray." 



