ail, at last drops on
board the vessel, verifying the old remark--

"Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim."

There, stunned by the fall, it beats the deck with its tail, and dies.
When eating it, you would take it for a fresh herring. The largest
measure from fourteen to fifteen inches in length. The dolphin, after
pursuing it to the ship, sometimes forfeits his own life.

In days of yore, the musician used to play in softest, sweetest strain,
and then take an airing amongst the dolphins; "inter delphinas Arion."
But nowadays, our tars have quite capsized the custom; and instead of
riding ashore on the dolphin, they invited the dolphin aboard. While he
is darting and playing around the vessel, a sailor goes out to the
spritsailyard-arm, and with a long staff, leaded at one end, and armed at
the other with five barbed spikes, he heaves it at him. If successful in
his aim, there is a fresh mess for all hands. The dying dolphin affords
a superb and brilliant sight:

"Mille trahit moriens, adverso sole colores."

All the colours of the rainbow pass and repass in rapid succession over
his body, till the dark hand of death closes the scene.

From the Cape de Verd Islands to the coast of Brazil you see several
different kinds of gulls, which probably are bred in the island of St.
Paul. Sometimes the large bird called the frigate pelican soars
majestically over the vessel, and the tropic-bird comes near enough to
let you have a fair view of the long feathers in his tail. On the line
when it is calm sharks of a tremendous size make their appearance. They
are descried from the ship by means of the dorsal fin, which is above the
water.

On entering the Bay of Pernambuco, the frigate pelican is seen watching
the shoals of fish from a prodigious height. It seldom descends without
a successful attack on its numerous prey below.

As you approach the shore the view is charming. The hills are clothed
with wood, gradually rising towards the interior, none of them of any
considerable height. A singular reef of rocks runs parallel to the
coast, and forms the harbour of Pernambuco. The vessels are moored
betwixt it and the town, safe from every storm. You enter the harbour
through a very narrow passage, close by a fort built on the reef. The
hill of Olinda, studded with houses and convents, is on your right hand,
and an island, thickly planted with cocoa-nut trees, adds considerably to
the scene on you