83 



AUDUBON 



On the 17th of May, my baggage was put on board, I 

 following, and the steamboat " Hercules " came alongside 

 at seven P. M., and in ten hours put the " Delos " to sea. I 

 was immediately affected with sea-sickness, which, however, 

 lasted but a short time ; I remained on deck constantly, 

 forcing myself to exercise. We calculated our day of 

 departure to be May i8, 1826, at noon, when we first 

 made an observation. It is now the 28th ; the weather 

 has been generally fair with light winds. The first objects 

 which diverted my thoughts from the dear ones left behind 

 me, were the beautiful Dolphins that glided by the vessel 

 like burnished gold by day, and bright meteors by night. 

 Our captain and mate proved experts at alluring them with 

 baited hooks, and dexterous at piercing them with a five- 

 pronged instrument, generally called by seamen " grain." 

 If hooked, the Dolphin flou'ices desperately, glides off 

 with all its natural swiftness, rises perpendicularly out of 

 the water several feet, and often shakes off the hook and 

 escapes ; if, however, he is well hooked, he is played about 

 for a while, soon exhausted, and hauled into the ship. 

 Their flesh is firm, dry, yet quite acceptable at sea. 

 They differ much in their sizes, being, according to age, 

 smaller or larger ; I saw some four and a half feet long, 

 but a fair average is three feet. The paunch of all we 

 caught contained more or less small fishes of different 

 varieties, amongst which the flying-fish is most prevalent. 

 Dolphins move in companies of from four or five to 

 twenty or more. They chase the flying-fish, that with 

 astonishing rapidity, after having escaped their sharp 

 pursuer a while in the water, emerge, and go through 

 the air with the swiftness of an arrow, sometimes in a 

 straight course, sometimes forming part of a circle; yet 

 frequently the whole is unavailing, for the Dolphin bounds 

 from the sea in leaps of fifteen or twenty feet, and so 

 moves rapidly towards his prey, and the little fish falls, to 

 be swallowed by his antagonist. You must not suppose, 



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