enable it to extricate itself. Dolphins move in shoals, varying from four
or five to twenty or more, hunting in packs in the waters, as wolves pursue
their prey on land. The object of their pursuit is generally the Flying
fish, now and then the Bonita; and when nothing better can be had,
they will follow the little Rudder-fish, and seize it immediately under the
stern of the ship. The Flying-fishes, after having escaped for a while by
dint of their great velocity, but on being again approached by the Dolphin,
emerge from the waters, and spreading their broad wing-like fins,
sail through the air and disperse in all directions, like a covey of timid
partridges before the rapacious falcon. Some pursue a direct course,
others diverge on either side; but in a short time they all drop into their
natural element. While they are travelling in the air, their keen and
hungry pursuer, like a greyhound, follows in their wake, and performing
a succession of leaps, many feet in extent, rapidly gains upon the quarry,
which is often seized just as it falls into the sea.
Dolphins manifest a very remarkable sympathy with each other. The
moment one of them is hooked or grained, those in company make up to
it, and remain around until the unfortunate fish is pulled on board, when
they generally move off together, seldom biting at any thing thrown out
to them. This, however, is the case only with the larger individuals,
which keep apart from the young, in the same manner as is observed in
several species of birds; for when the smaller Dolphins are in large shoals,
they all remain under the bows of a ship, and bite in succession at any
sort of line, as if determined to see what has become of their lost companions,
in consequence of which they are often all caught.
You must not suppose that the Dolphin is without its enemies. Who,
in this world, man or fish, has not enough of them ? Often it conceives
itself on the very eve of swallowing a fish, which, after all, is nothing but
a piece of lead, with a few feathers fastened to it, to make it look like a
flying-fish, when it is seized and severed in two by the insidious Balacouda,
which I have once seen to carry off by means of its sharp teeth, the
better part of a Dolphin that was hooked, and already hoisted to the surface
of the water.
The Dolphins caught in the Gulf of Mexico during this calm were
suspected to be poisonous; and to ascertain whether this was really the
case, our cook, who was an African Negro, never boiled or fried one without
placing beside it a dollar. If the silver was not tarnished by the time
the Dolphin was ready for the table, the fish was presented to the passengers,
with an assurance that it was perfectly good. But as not a single
individual of the hundred that we caught had the property of converting
silver into copper, I suspect that our African sage was no magician.
One morning, that of the 22d of June, the weather sultry, I was surprised,
on getting out of my hammock, which was slung on deck, to find
the water all around swarming with Dolphins, which were sporting in
great glee. The sailors assured me that this was a certain " token of
wind,'" and, as they watched the movement of the fishes, added, " aye,
and of a fair breeze too."" I caught several Dolphins in the course of an
hour, after which scarcely any remained about the ship. Not a breath of
air came to our relief all that day, no, nor even the next. The sailors
were in despair, and I would probably have become despondent also, had
not my spirits been excited by finding a very large Dolphin on my hook.
When I had hauled it on board, I found it to be the largest I had ever
caught. It was a magnificent creature. See how it quivers in the agonies
of death ! its tail flaps the hard deck, producing a sound like the
rapid roll of a drum. How beautiful the changes of its colours! Now
it is blue, now green, silvery, golden, and burnished copper; now it presents
a blaze of all the hues of the rainbow intermingled ; but, alack ! it
is dead, and the play of its colours is no longer seen. It has settled into
the deep calm that has paralyzed the energies of the blustering winds,
and smoothed down the proud waves of the ocean.
The best bait for the Dolphin is a long stripe of shark's flesh. I think
it generally prefers this to the semblance of a flying-fish, which indeed it
does not often seize unless when the ship is under weigh, and it is made
to rise to the surface. There are times, however, when hunger and the
absence of their usual food, will induce the Dolphins to dash at any sort
of bait; and I have seen some caught by means of a piece of white linen
fastened to a hook. Their appetite is as keen as that of the Vulture, and
whenever a good opportunity occurs, they gorge themselves to such a degree
that they become an easy prey to their enemies the Balacouda and
the Bottle-nosed Porpoise. One that had been grained while lazily swimming
immediately under the stern of our ship, was found to have its stomach
completely crammed with flying-fish, all regularly disposed side by
side, with their tails downwards,—by which I mean to say that the Dolphin
always swallows its prey tail foremost. They looked in fact like so
many salted herrings packed in a box, and were to the number of twentytwo,
each six or seven inches in length.