74 
THE DOLPHIN. 
From what caufe the ancients were prejudiced in fa- 
vour of the dolphin it is not eafy to determine. The 
figure is fuch as could create no partiality ; its manners, 
which are fierce and rapacious, could Hill lefs endear it ; 
and it does not appear that this fifhfhews any attachment 
to mankind, more than the reft of the cetaceous tribes. 
It perhaps has arifen from commiferation, on hearing 
that plaintive moan, by which, when taken, it expreffes 
its fufi'erings. In a vcffel where feveral dolphins were 
confined, k fays an old writer, I fpent a night of great 
piain and uneafinefs, fo feelingly did thefe wretched 
creatures exprefs the miferies of their condition, in 
cries anti lamentations, refembling the human. Their 
fufi'erings forced from me tears of compaflion; and 
while the fifherman was afleep, I forced the one that 
feemed to fuller the greateft agony overboard into 
the fea, This act of tendernefs availed me nothing ; 
for the moaning of thofe that remained behind, feemed 
only to be encreafed ; who made figns too plain to be mif- 
uuderfiood, that they wiftied for a fimilar deliverance. 
Thus I fpent the night in unavailing forrow for f offer- 
ings that I could not alleviate *. 
Thefe prejudices in favour of the dolphin, are now fo 
wholly obliterated, that even the common people regard 
them in a very different light. Their appearance is far 
from being deemed a favourable omen by the feaman ; for 
their boundings, fports, and frolics in the water, are held to 
be fare indications of an apjproaching ftorm f. It is not 
known whether thefe motions of the dolphin are the 
gambols of pleafure, or the effedls of fear. They pro- 
bably 
'* Gillius apud WiJlough. 31. 
j British Zoolopy, and Willoughb. lib. ii. p. 30. 
