THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 185 



Aee, that this skilful sea-sportsman arranged all his 

 springs with such an assurance of success, that he 

 contrived to fall, at the end of each, just under the 

 very spot on which the exhausted Flying-fish were 

 about to drop ! Sometimes this catastroplie took 

 place at too great a distance for us to see from the 

 deck exactly what happened ; but on our mounting 

 high into the rigging, we may be said to have been in 

 at the death ; for then we could discover that the 

 unfortunate little creatures, one after another, either 

 popped right into the Dolphin's jaws, as they lighted 

 on the water, or were snapped up instantly afterwards. 



" It was impossible not to take an active part with 

 our pretty little friends of the weaker side, and 

 accordingly we very speedily had our revenge. The 

 middies and the sailors, delighted with the chance, 

 rigged out a dozen or twenty lines from the jib-boom 

 end and spritsail-yard-arms with hooks, baited merely 

 with bits of tin, the glitter of which resembles so 

 nmch that of the body and wings of the Flying-tish, 

 that many a proud Dolphin, making sure of a delicious 

 morsel, leaped in rapture at the deceitful prize."* 



Thoucrh these and other recorded anecdotes indu- 



O 



bitably refer to the bright pearly fishes just described, 

 there cannot be a doubt that the same habits are 

 found to mark the true Cetaceous Dolphins ; while 

 at the same time I confess that I do not recollect auy 

 instance in which such pursuit has been witnessed, in 

 my own experience, or recorded in books of voyages. 

 Indeed I do not conceive that the chase of the Flying- 

 tish by the Coryphene has been often witnessed, nor 



' Frag. Voy. and Trav. Secoud Series. Veil. i. p. 224. 



