WHALING VOYAGE* 
But wliat a delightful scene was here! We were 
looking into the beautiful ocean— it was as clear as 
crystal ; the bottom was composed of masses of broken 
rock, crowned with tufts of many-coloured coral, having 
the appearance of the ruins of empires covered with 
time-telling verdure and, what an immense multi- 
tude of fishes enlivened the scene ! some darting™ some 
moving slowly and cautiously— some gamboling through 
the briny waters, and appearing to do so without an 
effort,— and now, to describe their various beautiful 
colours, what a task is there ! Like the vegetable pro- 
ductions of those sunny climes, there appears to be no 
termination to the blending of the splendid colours of 
the rainbow in producing so many rich and exquisite 
tints ; and as it is with the beautiful tropical flowers, so 
it is with the living beings which inhabit the Indian seas, 
that constant good-giving luminary the sun no doubt 
acting the same on both, as regards the brilliancy of 
their colours. They were of all sizes and shapes ; and 
now and then a huge shark would make his unwelcome 
appearance, rising out of some abyss or ocean cave, 
like a wolf from his glen, prowling in search of innocent 
victims ; or like a vulture coming from its secret nest, in 
the ruins of some ancient temple, to fatten upon the 
innocent in the sunshine of their happiness. An invo- 
luntary feeling of horror pervaded our frames; as the 
lines now and then touched these monsters’ sides, they 
were drawn up with a convulsive twitch, for fear that 
they should engulf the bait within their merciless jaws. 
It is difficult to describe the whole of this feeling 
