At one haul there was brought on board a mass of flying-fish spawn,
about ten pounds in weight, looking like nothing so much as a pile of
ripe white currants, and clinging together in a very similar manner.

Such masses of ova I had often seen cast up among the outlying rocks on
the shores of the Caribbean Sea, when as a shipwrecked lad I wandered
idly about unburying turtle eggs from their snug beds in the warm sand,
and chasing the many-hued coral fish from one hiding-place to another.

While loitering in these smooth waters, waiting for the laggard wind, up
came a shoal of dolphin, ready as at all times to attach themselves for
awhile to the ship. Nothing is more singular than the manner in
which deep-sea fish will accompany a vessel that is not going too
fast--sometimes for days at a time. Most convenient too, and providing
hungry Jack with many a fresh mess he would otherwise have missed. Of
all these friendly fish, none is better known than the "dolphin," as
from long usage sailors persist in calling them, and will doubtless do
so until the end of the chapter. For the true dolphin (DELPHINIDAE) is
not a fish at all, but a mammal a warm-blooded creature that suckles
its young, and in its most familiar form is known to most people as
the porpoise. The sailor's "dolphin," on the other hand, is a veritable
fish, with vertical tail fin instead of the horizontal one which
distinguishes all the whale family, scales and gills.

It is well known to literature, under its sea-name, for its marvellous
brilliancy of colour, and there are few objects more dazzling than a
dolphin leaping out of a calm sea into the sunshine. The beauty of
a dying dolphin, however, though sanctioned by many generations of
writers, is a delusion, all the glory of the fish departing as soon as
he is withdrawn from his native element.

But this habit of digression grows upon one, and I must do my best to
check it, or I shall never get through my task.

To resume then: when this school of dolphin (I can't for the life of me
call them CORIPHAENA HIPPURIS) came alongside, a rush was made for the
"granes"--a sort of five-pronged trident, if I may be allowed a baby
bull. It was universally agreed among the fishermen that trying a hook
and line was only waste of time and provocative of profanity! since
every sailor knows that all the deep-water big fish require a living or
apparently living bait. The fish, however, sheered off, and would not be
tempted