THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 195 
of admiring their beauty. Their form is deep, but 
thin and somewhat flattened; and their sides are of 
brilliant pearly white, like polished silver. In small 
companies of five or six, they usually appear and 
play around and beneath the ship, sometimes close 
to the surface, and sometimes at such a depth that 
the eye can but dimly discern their shadowy out- 
line. When playing at an inconsiderable depth, in 
their turnings hither and thither, the rays of the 
sun, reflected from ther polished sides, as one or 
the other is exposed to the light, flash out in sudden 
gleams, or are interrupted, in a very striking man- 
ner. Night and day these interesting creatures are 
sporting about, apparently insusceptible of weari- 
ness. Their motion is very rapid, when their powers 
are put forth, as in pursuit of the timid little Flying- 
fish. It is to these fishes that most of the accounts 
of Dolphins, which we read in voyages, must be 
referred, as, Owing to some mistake of identity, 
not easily accounted for, the name of Dolphin has 
been universally misapplied by our seamen to the 
Coryphene, while they confound the true Dolphin 
with the Porpesse. From not adverting to this 
habitual misnomer, some confusion has arisen: thus 
the following interesting notice has been quoted 
in a late valuable work on the Cetacea,* as illustra- 
tive of the true Dolphins, although the fair nar- 
rator herself takes care to inform us that she means 
the Coryphena hippuris: “The other morning, a 
large Dolphin, which had been following the ship 
for some distance, and was sparkling most gloriously 
# Jardine’s Naturalist’s Library. 
