S T. J A G O. 59 
tude, the smoothness of the sea places the passenger so much 
at his ease, that he now finds himself compelled to seek for 
some kind of employment to pass away the time. Among ' 
the few active pursuits of which the situation admits, that of 
fishing naturally presents itself. The motion communicated 
to the water by so huge a body as a ship never fails to bring 
around it a great number and variety of the inhabitants of the 
deep, who accompany it night and day with unwearied per- 
severance, sometimes far beyond their accustomed climate. 
The most beautiful fish that swims the ocean is the dolphin, 
(the CoryphcBna hippurus,) of whi(;h we caught several in this 
part of the voyage, both with the hook and with the fork ; 
not so much for the sake of feasting the appetite, for they are 
but indifferent food, as of indulging the eye in the cruel de- 
light of observing the exquisitely beautiful but evanescent 
tints of colour that pass in succession over the surface of their 
bodies, in the agonies of dying. The golden hue of its back, 
when first drawn out of the water, which obtained it the 
name of Dorado, changing into all the colours of the rainbow, 
infinitely combined and varied, and seen differently from dif- 
ferent points of view, may be reckoned among the first of those 
brilliant but fleeting appearances with which the economy of 
nature s©metimes gratifies the eye, but which no pen can ac- 
curately describe, nor pencil delineate. The ravenous shark, 
the tyger of the ocean, is, like this beast of prey, generally 
observed prowling alone. He seldom refuses the bait, and is 
not therefore difficult to be taken ; but as the stench from his 
body is so intolerable, his carcase is rarely hoisted upon deck. 
But the most common of the voracious fish, that in shoals 
accompany ships through this part of the ocean, ^re two 
I 2 
