The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-20 00:00:00

A DOLPHIN CHASE.

I Shortly after observing the cluster of flying-
fish rise out of the water, we discovered two or
three dolphins ranging past the ship, in all their
beauty, and watched with some anxiety to see
one of those aquatic chases of which our friends,
the Indiamen, had been telling us such wonder-
ful stories. We had not long to wait ; for the
ship, in her progress through the water, soon
put up another shoal of these little things, which,
as the others had done, took their flight directly
to windward. A large dolphin, which had been
keeping company with us abreast of the wea-
ther gangway at the depth of two or three fa-
thoms, and, as usual, glistening most beautifully
in the sun, no sooner detected our poor dear
little friends take wing, than he turned his head
towards them, and, darting to the surface, leaped
from the water with a velocity little short, as it
seemed, of a cannon ball. But although the im-
petus with which he shot himself into the air
gave him an initial velocity greatly exceeding
that of the flying-fish, the start which his fated
prey had got enabled them to keep ahead of him
for a considerable time. The length of the dol-
phin's first spring could not be less than ten
yards ; and after he fell, we could see him glid-
ing like lightning through the water for a mo-
ment, when he again rose and shot forwards with
considerably greater velocity than at first, and,
of course, to a still greater distance. In this
manner, the merciless pursuer seemed to stride
along the sea with fearful rapidity, while his
brilliant coat sparkled and flashed in the sun
quite splendidly. As he fell headlong on the
water at the end of each huge leap, a series of
circles were sent far over the still surface, which
lay as smooth as a mirror ; for the breeze,
although enough to set the royals, and top-gal-
lant studding sails asleep, was hardly as vet felt
below. The group of wretched flying-fish, thus
hotly pursued, at length dropped into the sea ;
but we were rejoiced to observe that they merely
touched the top of the swell, and scarcely sunk
in it, at least they instantly set off again in a
fresh and more vigorous flight. It was particu-
larly interesting to observe, that the direction
they now took was quite different from the one
in which they had set out, implying, but too
obviously, that they had detected their fierce
enemy, who was following them with giant steps
along the waves, and now gaining rapidly upon
them. His terrific pace, indeed, was two or three
times as swift as theirs—poor little things I
The greedy dolphin, however, was fully as
quick-sighted as the flying-fish which were try-
ing to elude him ; for whenever they varied their
flight in the smallest degree, he lost not the
tenth part of a second in shaping a new course,
so as to cut off the chase, while they, in a man-
lier, really not unlike that of the hare, doubled
more than once upon their pursuer. But it was
soon too plainly to be seen that the strength and
confidence of the flying-fish were fast ebbing.
Their
their course more fluttering and uncertain, while
flights became shorter and shorter, and
the enormous leaps of the dolphin appeared to
grow only more vigorous at each bound. Even-
tually, indeed, we could see, or fancied we could
see, that this skilful sea-sportsman arranged all
his
that he contrived to fall, at the end of each,
springs with such an assurance of success
just under the very spot on which the exhausted
flying fish were about to drop ! Sometimes
this catastrophe took place at too great a dis-
tance for us to see from the deck exactly what
happened ; but on our mounting high into the
rigging, we may have been said to have been in
at the death ; for then we could discover that
the unfortunate little creatttro, 9nc After Ape,