EPISODES 



303 



and performing a succession of leaps, many feet in extent, 

 rapidly gains upon the quarry, which is often seized just 

 as it falls into the sea. 



Dolphins manifest a very remarkable sympathy with 

 each other. The moment one of them is hooked or 

 grained, those in company make up to it, and remain 

 around until the unfortunate fish is pulled on board, when 

 they generally move off together, seldom biting at any- 

 thing thrown out to them. This, however, is the case 

 only with the larger individuals, which keep apart from 

 the young, in the same manner as is observed in several 

 species of birds; for when the smalle Dolphins are in 

 large shoals, they all remain under the bows of a ship, 

 and bite in succession at any sort of line, as if determined 

 to see what has become of their lost companions, in con- 

 sequence of which they are often all caught. 



You must not suppose that the Dolphin is without its 

 enemies. Who, in this world, man or fish, has not enough 

 of them? Often it conceives itself on the very eve of 

 swallowing a fish, which, after all, is nothing but a piece 

 of lead, with a few feathers fastened to it, to make it look 

 like a Flying-fish, when it is seized and severed in two by 

 the insidious Balacouda, which I have once seen to carry 

 off by means of its sharp teeth, the better part of a 

 Dolphin that was hooked, and already hoisted to the sur- 

 face of the water. 



The Dolphins caught in the Gulf of Mexico during this 

 calm were suspected to be poisonous; and to ascertain 

 whether this was really the case, our cook, who was an 

 African negro, never boiled or fried one without placing 

 beside it a dollar. If the silver was not tarnished by the 

 time the Dolphin was ready for the table, the fish was 

 presented to the passengers, with an assurance that it was 

 perfectly good. But as not a single individual of the 

 hundred that we caught had the property of converting 

 silver into copper, I suspect that our African sage was no 

 magician. \ 





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