The Dolphin 343 



pitiless heat, seemed to scream in very agony 

 at every lunge of the ship. All the expedients 

 known to mariners were brought into play. The 

 foremast was hammered by all hands. The cap- 

 tain of the galley, a jolly shipmate under some 

 circumstances, whistled for the wind with a rare 

 faith, while the good skipper swore and believed 

 himself bewitched as the days sped by. 



Such monotony became intolerable, and I 

 began to occupy myself by rowing about in a 

 boat, always keeping near the ship in case the 

 welcome wind should come. We were on the 

 outskirts of the famous Sargasso Sea. Great 

 patches of sargassum, the gulfweed, covered the 

 water everywhere, each islet forming, at least to 

 me, a fascinating world in itself. They were float- 

 ing islands with marvellous populations, crabs, 

 shells, shell-less " shells," and fishes, all colored 

 the exact tint of their surroundings, a rich green. 

 Here was the strange antennarius, or walking fish, 

 with its nest, a bunch of weed held together by a 

 glutinous secretion and covered with myriads of 

 eggs the size of a pin's head. So marvellous was 

 this fish in its mimicry that I could hardly dis- 

 tinguish it from the weed when lying on it, even 

 with my face but two feet distant. 



