172 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
was just after dinner : a shoal of dolphins were amusing 
themselves under the bows^ when our captain went forward, 
took his harpoon, and stationed himself on the bowsprit. 
He watched his opportunity, poised his weapon, and trans- 
fixed a fine fellow in the back. The animal rushed away 
with the speed of lightning, but the barb was fast, and so was 
the rope attached to it ; the sailors hauled him to the sur- 
face of the water, where he tossed and plunged with amaz- 
ing force, while the red life-blood gushed from his wound in 
torrents, dying the water all around. We were fearful of 
losing him ; for one barb of the harpoon was out, and the 
point of the other was protruded through the skin : his hide 
must have been very tough, or his tremendous struggles 
would certainly have freed him from so slender a hold. After 
many trials and failures we at length got the bight of a rope 
under his huge tail, and another over his breast fins, and 
hauled him on deck, with the warm blood still spouting 
from his gaping wound. The mate, however, cut his throat, 
and he was dead almost instantly ; but not before he had 
well lashed the deck with his muscular tail. I took an ac- 
curate drawing of him as he lay. He measured seven feet 
ten inches from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail : 
one foot four inches from the insertion of the back fin to the 
belly (that is, in perpendicular diameter) ; two feet four 
inches from tip to tip of the pectoral fins ; the tail was two 
feet in width ; the snout, from the tip to the angle of the 
eye, one foot. The blowhole on his forehead was very curi- 
ous ; it was circular, about an inch in diameter, and was 
closed by a valve. When it was cut open, we found that 
the orifice considerably enlarged a little below the surface, 
and was lined with a very soft black skin. The eye was of 
a transparent blue colour, and gleamed in some lights like 
the eyes of cats, &c. The teeth were very small, regular, 
and beautiful ; those of the upper jaw fitting into the inter- 
