562 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
The usual height of their flight, as seen above the surface of the 
water, is from two to three feet, but I have known them come on board 
at the height of fourteen feet and upwards. And they have been well 
ascertained to come into the chains of a line-of-battle ship, which is 
considered to be upwards of twenty feet. But it must not be sup- 
posed that they have the power of raising themselves into the air after 
having left their native element ; for on watching them I have often 
seen them fall much below the elevation at which they first rose from 
the water ; nor have I ever in any instance seen them rise from the 
height to which they first sprang, for I conceive the elevation they 
take depends on the power of the first spring.” 
The most common species is E. volitans. Its brilliant colouring 
would seem designed to point it out to its enemies, against whom it is 
totally defenceless. A dazzling silvery splendour pervades its surface. 
The summit of its head, its back, and its side3, are of azure blue ; this 
blue becomes spotted upon the dorsal fin, the pectoral fin, and the 
tail. This fish is the common prey of the more voracious fishes, 
such as the shark and the sea-birds ; its enemies abound in the air 
and water. If it succeeds in escaping the Charybdis of the water, 
the chances are in favour of its coming to grief in the Scylla of 
the atmosphere ; — if it escapes the jaws of the shark, it will probably 
fall to the share of the sea-gull. The dolphin is also a foi'midable 
enemy to the much-persecuted flying-fish. Captain Basil Hall gives 
a very animated description of their mode of attack* He was in a 
prize, a low Spanish schooner, rising not above two feet and a half out 
of the water. “ Two or three dolphins had ranged past the ship in all 
their beauty. The ship in her progress through the water had put 
up a shoal of these little things (flying-fish), which took their flight 
to windward. A large dolphin which had been keeping company 
with us abreast of the weather gangway at the depth of two or three 
fathoms, and as usual glistening most beautifully in the sun, no sooner 
detected our poor dear friends take wing than he turned his head 
towards them, darted to the surface, and leaped from the water with a 
velocity little short, as it seemed to us, of a cannon-ball. But though 
the impetus with which he shot himself into the air gave him an 
initial velocity greatly exceeding that of the flying-fish, the start 
which his fated prey had got enabled them to keep ahead of him for a 
* “ Lieutenant and Commander,” by Captain Basil Hall. Bell & Daldy, London. 
