DOLPHINS. 
355 
they played about in these shoal-waters close in-shore 
in confidence and security, and had done so for the 
occasional years that he had observed them ; hence 
it was, that although so common and so much within 
the power of any one curious enough to shoot them, 
they had never been disturbed, and no one knew 
anything more of them, than that they were Dol- 
phins. The mingled river and sea-water that at- 
tracted them was a favourite fishing-ground of the 
Osprey. That bird would be seen at the same sun- 
set hours hovering within the river mouth, while the 
Dolphins were busy with their chase on the outside. 
The young Sharks were prodigiously numerous on 
this coast. I once took the pains to calculate their 
numbers. At the rate at which the fishing-canoes 
brought them in with other fish taken in the seines 
daily, not less than ten thousand of them must 
be annually destroyed upon this beach alone. As 
far as a hasty glance at the Dolphins, when sporting, 
could be obtained with the spy-glass, they seemed 
to me to resemble the Delphinus superciliosus of 
Lesson in shape and size. The colour was decidedly 
of that hue called lead-colour : blackish-blue above 
and grey beneath. 
September y 1846. In my notes of a visit to 
Passage Fort, in 1842, 1 noticed the Lagoon between 
Fort Augusta and the Salinas. I spoke of it as the 
great stock-pond of the Kingston Fish-market for 
certain kinds of fish, and represented it as being a 
fine lakelet, interestingly varied with mangrove islets, 
and with clustered trees upon its borders. It is a 
spacious piece of water of two divisions, of very 
