A LONG CALM AT SEA. 493 



gers, 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. 



One morning, that of the 22d of J une, the weather sultry, I was sur- 

 prised, on getting out of my hammock, which was slung on deck, to find 

 the water all around swarming with Dolphins, which were sporting in 

 great glee. The sailors assured me that this was a certain " token of 

 wind," and, as they watched the movement of the fishes, added, " aye, 

 and of a fair breeze too." I caught several Dolphins in the course of an 

 hour, after which scarcely any remained about the ship. Not a breath of 

 air came to our relief all that day, no, nor even the next. The sailors 

 were in despair, and I would probably have become despondent also, had 

 not my spirits been excited by finding a very large Dolphin on my hook. 

 When I had hauled it on board, I found it to be the largest I had ever 

 caught. It was a magnificent creature. See how it quivers in the ago- 

 nies of death ! its tail flaps the hard deck, producing a sound like the 

 rapid roll of a drum. How beautiful the changes of its colours ! Now 

 it is blue, now green, silvery, golden, and burnished copper ; now it pre- 

 sents a blaze of all the hues of the rainbow intermingled ; but, alack ! it 

 is dead, and the play of its colours is no longer seen. It has settled into 

 the deep calm that has paralyzed the energies of the blustering winds, 

 and smoothed down the proud waves of the ocean. 



The best bait for the Dolphin is a long stripe of shark's flesh. I think 

 it generally prefers this to the semblance of a flying-fish, which indeed it 

 does not often seize unless when the ship is under weigh, and it is made 

 to rise to the surface. There are times, however, when hunger and the 

 absence of their usual food, will induce the Dolphins to dash at any sort 

 of bait ; and I have seen some caught by means of a piece of white linen 

 fastened to a hook. Their appetite is as keen as that of the Vulture, and 

 whenever a good opportunity occurs, they gorge themselves to such a de- 

 gree that they become an easy prey to their enemies the Balacouda and 

 the Bottle-nosed Porpoise. One that had been grained while lazily swim- 

 ming immediately under the stern of our ship, was found to have its sto- 

 mach completely crammed with flying-fish, all regularly disposed side by 

 side, with their tails downwards, — by which I mean to say that the Dol- 

 phin always swallows its prey tail foremost. They looked in fact like so 

 many salted herrings packed in a box, and were to the number of twenty- 

 two, each six or seven inches in length. 



I 



