352 
rOKT DAUPHIN. 
half league in breadth ; of variable depth ; with five 
islets dotted about it. This fine harbour was in old 
times the stronghold of the Buccaneers, who fortified 
one of these islands, and used the neighbouring 
plains for a hunting ground. In the year 1828 or 
1829, a Cachelot Whale entered it, pursued by an 
Espadron or Sword-fish. The reefs outside the nar- 
row throat-like entrance I have described, have only 
a single channel for ships ; the other openings in 
them admit of nothing much bigger than canoes to 
pass. Having got within these rocks, the Whale was 
driven to an extremity and had no alternative but 
to take the narrow channel into Fort Dauphin to 
escape his active pursuer. As the bay is so sheltered 
that the waters are as gentle as a mill-pond under 
the usual easterly breezes from the sea, it was soon 
perceived that the huge monster as he came rolling 
and blowing and spouting in, was wounded and 
bleeding. A host of canoes immediately pushed off 
to him, not to pursue him with harpoons, for they 
were not provided with the necessary weapons, nor 
with the requisite tackle ; but to follow him and 
harass him until he should entangle himself in the 
shoal-grounds about the harbour. After he had 
been hunted about some time, he was driven aground 
in the south-east arm of the Bay, and when measured 
was found to exceed sixty feet in length. As the 
harbour of Fort Dauphin divaricates, and spreads 
into a form like the letter Y, the Whale first took 
one arm and then the other, swimming at a rapid 
rate, with his enormous head raised into the air, and 
taking breath. The water was lashed into foam in 
