CHAPTER XXI 



THE HARLEQUIN OF THE FISHES 



TO those who go down to the sea in ships on 

 the Atlantic coast, and especially make 

 their way in winter down among the Bahama 

 and Leeward islands, along the mysterious Span- 

 ish main, a vision of loveliness is often vouch- 

 safed in the guise of long, big-headed fishes, 

 which give a continual and extraordinary ex- 

 hibition of agility, directly in front of the cut- 

 water of the fastest steamer, yacht, or sailing 

 vessel, seemingly playing with it. From a dis- 

 tance of several feet, they look blue-backed, not 

 unlike albacore; and they go by the name of 

 dolphins, but are fishes; not the whale-like crea- 

 ture known as the bottle-nosed dolphin, which 

 has the habits of the porpoise and others of the 

 whale family. 



It has been my good fortune to take several 

 of these fishes which live out at sea in the At- 

 lantic; one from the dolphin-striker of a ship, 

 with a spear; and again in a vast floating patch 

 of weed a disconnected section of the Sargasso 

 Sea, where I had an excellent opportunity to see 



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