Modern Sea Disabilities 243 



far north as the Azores and have heard of them being 

 seen in the Bay of Biscay ; but, while I do not feel 

 able to deny that this can be true, I feel sure that the 

 conditions must have been abnormal in the extreme. 



Now it may be considered an ultra-refinement 

 of description thus to dwell upon the peculiarities of a 

 creature which is quite unknown to the majority of 

 people, and from the circumstances of the case likely 

 to remain so. For not only is it a very small fringe 

 of the population that goes or can go to sea far enough 

 to see a Dolphin, but even sailors are being precluded 

 from making the acquaintance of Deep-Sea People 

 by reason of the passing away of the sailing vessel. 

 There are very many sailors to-day who have done 

 an enormous amount of voyaging to all parts of the 

 world, yet have never seen one of these fish, which 

 used to be among the most familiar objects to seafarers, 

 because these essentially social sea inhabitants do 

 not like the throbbing of the propeller or the swift 

 rushing of the steamship. Much as they would like 

 to forgather with a ship, they find it impossible so to 

 do, unless she is propelled by sails. And so it comes 

 to pass that the deep-sea fish are losing that intimate 

 touch with man, which they have maintained for 

 countless generations, to the exceeding benefit of 

 the sailor. 



My first acquaintance with the Dolphin was made 

 at a very early age. It was on my first voyage, from 

 London to Demerara, in British Guiana. The weather 

 was exceedingly fine, and the trade winds quite light. 

 As we crossed that weed-covered vortex in the 

 North Atlantic so widely known as the Sargasso Sea, 

 we were often hardly able to force a passage through 

 the hay-coloured masses, so feeble was the impetus 

 given to our bluff-bowed old craft by the laggard 



