49-2 A LONG CALxM AT SEA. 



enable it to extricate itself. Dolphins move in shoals, varying from four 

 or five to twenty or more, hunting in packs in the waters, as wolves pur- 

 sue their prey on land. The object of their pursuit is generally the Fly- 

 ing-fish, now and then the Bonita ; and when nothing better can be had, 

 they will follow the little Rudder-fish, and seize it immediately under the 

 stern of the ship. The Flying-fishes, after having escaped for a while by 

 dint of their great velocity, but on being again approached by the Dol- 

 phin, emerge from the waters, and spreading their broad wing-like fins, 

 sail through the air and disperse in all directions, like a covey of timid 

 partridges before the rapacious falcon. Some pursue a direct course, 

 others diverge on either side ; but in a short time they all drop into their 

 natural element. While they are travelling in the air, their keen and 

 hungry pursuer, like a greyhound, follows in their wake, 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 smaller 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 com- 

 panions, in consequence 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 Bala^- 

 couda, 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 ]\Iexico during this calm were 

 suspected to be poisonous ; and to ascertain Avhether this was really the 

 case, our cook, who was an African Negro, never boiled or fried one with- 

 out 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 passen- 



