DECEMBER 13.
We caught a dolphin, but not with the spear: he gorged a
line which was fastened to the stern and baited with salt pork;
but being a very large and strong fish, his efforts to escape were
so powerful, that it was feared he would break the line, and a
grainse (as the dolphin-spear is technically termed) was thrown
at him : he was struck, and three of the prongs were buried in
his side ; yet with a violent effort be forced them out again, and
threw the lance up into the air. I am not much used to take
pleasure in the sight of animal suffering, but if Pythagoras him
self bad been present, and "of opinion that the soul of his.
grandam might haply inhabit" this dolphin, I think he must
still have admired the force and agility displayed in his endeavours
to escape. Imagination can picture nothing more beautiful
than the colours of this fish: while covered by the waves be was
entirely green ; and as the water gave him a case of transparent
crystal, he really looked like one solid piece of living emerald;
when he sprang into the air or swam fatigued upon the surface,
his fins alone preserved their green, and the rest of his body
appeared to be of the brightest yellow, his scales shining like
gold wherever they caught the sun; while the blood which, as
long as he remained in the sea, continued to spout in great quantities forces
its way upwards
through the water like a wreath of
smoke, and then dispersed itself in separate globules
among the spray. From the great loss of' blood his colours soon
became paler; but when he was at length safely landed on deck,
and beating himself to death against the flooring, agony renewed
all the lustre of his tints: his fins were still green and his body
golden, except his back, which was olive, shot with bright deep
blue; his head and belly became silvery, and the spots with
which the latter was mottled, changed with incessant rapidity,
from deep olive to the most beautiful azure. Gradually his
brilliant tints disappeared; they were succeeded by one uniform
shade of slate colour, and when he was quite dead he exhibited
nothing but dirty brown and dull dead white. As soon as all was
over with him, the first thing done was to convert one of his fins
into the resemblance of a flying-fish, for the purpose of decoying
other dolphins ; and the second, to order some of the present gentleman
to be got ready for dinner. He measured above four feet
and a half.
