352 FORT DAUPHIN. 



half league in breadth ; of variable depth ; with five 

 islets dotted about it. This fine harbour was in old 

 times the stronghold of the Buccaneers, who fortified 

 one of these islands, and used the neighbouring 

 plains for a hunting ground. In the year 1828 or 

 1829, a Cachelot Whale entered it, pursued by an 

 Espadron or Sword-fish. The reefs outside the nar- 

 row throat-like entrance I have described, have only 

 a single channel for ships ; the other openings in 

 them admit of nothing much bigger than canoes to 

 pass. Having got within these rocks, the Whale was 

 driven to an extremity and had no alternative but 

 to take the narrow channel into Fort Dauphin to 

 escape his active pursuer. As the bay is so sheltered 

 that the waters are as gentle as a mill-pond under 

 the usual easterly breezes from the sea, it was soon 

 perceived that the huge monster as he came rolling 

 and blowing and spouting in, was wounded and 

 bleeding. A host of canoes immediately pushed off 

 to him, not to pursue him with harpoons, for they 

 were not provided with the necessary weapons, nor 

 with the requisite tackle ; but to follow him and 

 harass him until he should entangle himself in the 

 shoal-grounds about the harbour. After he had 

 been hunted about some time, he was driven aground 

 in the south-east arm of the Bay, and when measured 

 was found to exceed sixty feet in length. As the 

 harbour of Fort Dauphin divaricates, and spreads 

 into a form like the letter Y, the Whale first took 

 one arm and then the other, swimming at a rapid 

 rate, with his enormous head raised into the air, and 

 taking breath. The water was lashed into foam in 



