270 By Stream and Sea. 



dolphin, who volunteered to convey them in safety to the 

 shore. It would be highly interesting to hear what the 

 flying fish had to say touching this Shaftesbury of the shoals 

 — this scaly pattern of piscatorial piety. 



One dark night, far out in the Indian Ocean, we were 

 treated to a series of highly effective illuminations. It 

 seemed as if all the finest stars in, the firmament had fallen 

 down into the sea, and, after sinking somewhat, had been 

 arrested in their descent by an under-current which took 

 them in slow procession past us. We could see them 

 luminously pale half a fathom beneath the surface, floating 

 solemnly on in never-ending numbers. The larger lights — 

 the planets, so to speak— shone gloriously when not too 

 much submerged ; the ordinary constellations glowed in 

 meeker but not less enchanting measure. These were 

 Medusae — if the metaphor must be dropped — and the ocean 

 was full of them. By-and-by the vessel steamed through 

 what I presume must have been a dense field of spawn ; 

 dazzling cascades of silver were cast off from her sides, 

 and for a few minutes we were ploughing through a lake 

 of living fire. 



This peculiar condition of the water revealed to us some- 

 thing of the dolphin's philanthropic quality. Abreast of the 

 ship, and not far removed from the weather bow, a shoal of 

 small fish could be descried scudding along after the manner 

 of foam. At first it was believed to be foam, but a moment's 

 reflection showed that the white mass would in that case be 

 moving in an opposite direction. Further watching convinced 

 us it was a shoal of flying fish. Soon there was a racket 

 below and a pyrotechnic discharge : the fish had broken 

 cover and flown out of the sea. After a short flight they 

 settled again, and then I understood the secret. A couple 

 of long luminous bars appeared in rear of the shoal — dol- 



