568 THE OCEAN WORLD, 
he lost not the tenth part of a second in shaping his course so as to 
cut off the chase ; while they, in a manner really not unlike that of 
the hare, doubled more than once upon their pursuer. But it was soon 
plainly to be seen that the strength and confidence of the flying-fish 
were fast ebbing ; their flights became shorter and shorter, and their 
course more fluttering and uncertain, while the leaps of the dolphin 
seemed to grow more vigorous at each bound. Eventually this 
skilful sea-sportsman seemed to arrange his springs so as to fall just 
Fig. 373.—Stomias boa. 
under the very spot on which the exhausted flying-fish were about to 
drop. This catastrophe took place at too great a distance for us to 
see from the deck what happened ; but on our mounting high on the 
rigging, we may be said to have been in at the death; for then we 
could discover that the unfortunate little creatures, one after another, 
either popped right into the dolphin’s jaws as they lighted on the 
water, or were snapped up instantly after.” 
Esocip#,—This family contains the well-known fresh-water Pike 
and also the marine genus Beéone, to which the gar fish belongs, 
and the strange genus Stomias. Here the body is much elongated, 
the muzzle being very short, the mouth very deeply cleft, the opercula 
reduced to small membranous lamina; the intermaxillary palatine 
