FISHES. 345 
But while his heart the fatal javelin thrills, 
And fleeting life escapes in sanguine rills, 
What radiant changes strike the astonish'd sight, 
What glowing hues of mingled shade and light ! 
No equal beauties gild the lucid west 
With parting beams all o'er profusely dress'd ; 
No lovelier colours paint the vernal dawn, 
When orient dews impearl the enamell'd lawn ; 
Than from his sides in bright suffusion flow, 
That now with gold empyreal seem to glow; 
Now in pellucid sapphires meet the view, 
And emulate the soft celestial hue ; 
Now beam a flaming crimson to the eye, 
And now assume the purple's deeper dye : 
But here description clouds each shining ray ; 
What terms of art can Nature's power display ? 
Unfortunately for poetry, the beautiful colours of the 
dying Dolphin exist entirely in the fancy of the poet; as 
the Dolphin in a dying state displays no tints but black 
and white. 
THE PORPOISE. (Delphinius Phocana.) 
THE Porpoise is one of the cetaceae, and nearly allied to 
the dolphin, but it has not the beaked snout of that 
animal. The length of the Porpoise is, from the tip 
of the snout to the end of the tail, from four to eight 
feet, and in width about two feet and a half. The figure of 
Q 5 
