28 THE CRUISE OF THE "CACHALOTS 



life the weed is, to be sure ! In it the flying fish spawn 

 and the tiny cuttle-fish breed, both of them preparing 

 bounteous provision for the larger denizens of the deep 

 that have no other food. Myriads of tiny crabs and 

 innumerable specimens of less-known shell-fish, small 

 fish of sjoecies as yet unclassified in any work on natural 

 history, with jelly-fish of every conceivable and incon- 

 ceivable shape, form part of this great and populous 

 country in the sea. At one haul there was brought on 

 board a mass of flying-fish spawn, about ten pounds in 

 weight, looking like nothing so much as a pile of ripe 

 white currants, and clinging together in a very similar 

 manner. 



Such masses of ova I had often seen cast up among 

 the outlying rocks on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, 

 when as a shipwrecked lad I wandered idly about un- 

 burying turtle eggs from their snug beds in the warm 

 sand, and chasing the many-hued coral fish from one 

 hiding place to another. 



While loitering in these smooth waters, waiting for 

 the laggard wind, up came a shoal of dolphin, ready as 

 at all times to attach themselves for awhile to the ship. 

 Nothing is more singular than the manner in which 

 deep-sea fish will accompany a vessel that is not going 

 too fast — sometimes for days at a time. Most convenient 

 too, and providing hungry Jack with many a fresh mess 

 he would otherwise have missed. Of all these friendly 

 fish, none is better known than the "dolphin," as from 

 long usage sailors persist in calling them, and will doubt- 

 less do so until the end of the chapter. For the true 

 dolphin (Delphinidse) is not a fish at all, but a mammal 

 — a warm-blooded creature that suckles its young, and in 

 its most familiar form is known to most people as the 



