CHAPTER XXIII 



THE DOLPHIN 



" A shoal of dolphins, tumbling in wild glee, 

 Glowed with such orient tints, they might have been 

 The rainbow's offspring, where it met the ocean." 



MONTGOMERY. 



FEW anglers have taken this beautiful creature, 

 whose home is upon the high seas, and whose 

 presence often gladdens the heart of the mariner 

 in the idle forties; hence few know the amount 

 of power, force, exhilaration, and game qualities 

 possessed by this gorgeous acrobat, this harlequin 

 of the sea. It happened some years ago that I 

 was caught at sea in a remarkable calm, which 

 continued for nearly a week, during which period 

 the ship drifted many miles, but sailed not one. 

 We were in the Gulf Stream, so went on at a 

 mysterious pace, yet without sails, to the measure 

 of the eternal tapping and rippling music of 

 countless reefing points and the nerve-rasping 

 creaking of booms whose jaws, drying under the 



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