The Harlequin of the Fishes 335 



into this wonderland, where the sky seemed to 

 be reflected, saw the marvellous changes of the 

 greatest master of color-change in the world. 



Up it came, foot by foot, until I saw its splen- 

 did outline against the blue, its tall, domed head, 

 the long, beautiful dorsal fin from head to tail, 

 the thin knife-like body, the sardonic mouth, 

 small beautiful eyes, the silvery belly, the yellow 

 fins, all of which flashed waves of chromatic 

 storms, dazzling to the eye and senses. 



The dolphin was about four feet in length, a 

 doughty specimen, and it was making literally 

 the fight of its life; swimming, head down, in 

 great circles, protesting every inch, every turn 

 of the reel. In due time it was reeled to within 

 tAventy feet of the surface, and the boatman 

 was fingering the gaff, and I was still reporting 

 its changes of color for the benefit of the angler, 

 who could not see them, when it suddenly 

 changed its tactics, stopped circling, dashed up- 

 ward in a blaze of glory, and leaped like a tar- 

 pon into the air, where for a single second it 

 thrashed about, a thing of beauty, a living rain- 

 bow, an ecstatic prism, scintillating with efful- 

 gent rays, to fall and leap again and again, to 

 our amazement and delight. 



Then it rushed away, making the reel sing 

 a brazen allegro; coming around in a great 

 circle, to leap again; always coming in nearer 

 and nearer, fighting for its life, the epitome of 



