254 The Dolphin 



behind him, shot upward, there was an eddy and a stain, 

 and the gorgeous sea dandy was in two halves, one of 

 which had disappeared down the throat of the lurking 

 and crafty shark, who had so successfully stalked his 

 elegant prey. Of course the second half rapidly 

 followed the first down the shark's curious crescentic 

 mouth, when he immediately concealed himself again. 

 Three times did I watch the shark perform that 

 manoeuvre successfully, exercising an amount of 

 patient self-restraint that was wonderful to behold, 

 remembering how cruelly he was being tormented by 

 the cravings of that enormous liver of his. 



This was indeed the only occasion upon which I 

 saw a Dolphin outwitted by a shark ; as to being 

 caught by so slow a fish as the shark is, the thing 

 is unthinkable. I do not imagine, however, that the 

 Dolphin is very intelligent, for I once saw a whole 

 group of them, seven in number, caught one ofter 

 the other from a flying-fish boat in Barbadoes Bay. 

 We had been catching a goodly number of Exocetus, 

 when the vast shoal from which we had been dipping 

 out fish until our backs were nearly breaking suddenly 

 vanished like the breath off a mirror. And then we 

 saw the aforesaid group prowling around quite slowly, 

 as if bewildered by the sudden disappearance of what 

 they doubtless considered their food supply, A couple 

 of stout hooks attached to heavy lines were each 

 furnished with a still living flying-fish and flung over- 

 side, streaming away astern in the gentle ripple of 

 our wake ; for we were just moving a knot or so an 

 hour. In five minutes the whole seven of them were 

 inboard, each coming up to take the place of the com- 

 rade he had seen depart so hastily, without exhibiting 

 a trace of any knowledge that there was danger to 

 his life in the proximity of the boat. 



