THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 195 



of admiring their beauty. Their form is deep, but 

 thin and somewhat flattened; and their sides are of 

 brilliant pearly white, like polished silver. In small 

 companies of five or six, they usually appear and 

 play around and beneath the ship, sometimes close 

 to the surface, and sometimes at such a depth that 

 the eye can but dimly discern their shadowy out- 

 line. When playing at an inconsiderable depth, in 

 their turnings hither and thither, the rays of the 

 sun, reflected from ther polished sides, as one or 

 the other is exposed to the light, flash out in sudden 

 gleams, or are interrupted, in a very striking man- 

 ner. Night and day these interesting creatures are 

 sporting about, apparently insusceptible of weari- 

 ness. Their motion is very rapid, when their powers 

 are put forth, as in pursuit of the timid little Flying- 

 fish. It is to these fishes that most of the accounts 

 of Dolphins, which we read in voyages, must be 

 referred, as, owing to some mistake of identity, 

 not easily accounted for, the name of Dolphin has 

 been universally misapplied by our seamen to the 

 Coryphene, while they confound the true Dolphin 

 with the Porpesse. From not adverting to this 

 habitual misnomer, some confusion has arisen: thus 

 the following interesting notice has been quoted 

 in a late valuable work on the Cetacea,* as illustra- 

 tive of the true Dolphins, although the fair nar- 

 rator herself takes care to inform us that she means 

 the Coryphama hippuris: "The other morning, a 

 large Dolphin, which had been following the ship 

 for some distance, and was sparkling most gloriously 



*Jardiue's Naturalist's Library. 



