402 
CHAP. 
X. 
-in . . i.—y,— . 
White-- 
Dolphins. 
Obsorva- 
tious Oil 
board the 
Moderate 
VOYAGE FROM ODESSA, 
lying in the river. A singular appearance may 
be observed in the Mouths of the Danube, which 
we are unable . to explain. The Dolphins' 
everywhere else exhibiting a dark colour, are 
here perfectly white. This may wearso much the 
air of a fable, that, in proof of the fact, we may 
state a practice among Greek mariners, during 
mists and dark weather, of ascertaining their 
position by such phenomena. As soon as they 
descry the white dolphins, they become assured 
that they are within the current of the Danube , 
although in thirty fathoms water, and many 
leagues distant from its mouth. It has been 
already stated, that the water is itself of a white 
colour; and probably from this circumstance 
arises the supposed colour of the dolphin' 1 2 . 
After passing the Mouths of the Danube , but 
still being conveyed by its current, we observed 
four mountains, with such regular conical forms, 
and so singular as to their situation, in a horizon 
otherwise perfectly flat, that we at first supposed 
them to be immense tumuli. The Captain 
(1) Dolphin is the name given to this fish, in these seas ; and it is the 
Delphinus ot Pliny t perhaps nothing more than our porpoise. It is 
seen sporting in great abundance, and generally proceeding in pairs, 
through the Straits of Taman and of Constantinople. 
(2) The notion of white dolphins in this part of the /Hack Sea seems 
connected with the notions entertained by the Anticuts of the white- 
ness of the Island of Achilles, and of the birds there seen. ' 
