forms the peaceable character of the peoples who inhabit those shores. At least so they say, and they offer as proof that the salmon, trout, carp and an infinite number of other finny peoples who visit the neighborhood of mankind, are honorable in their shape and very respectable in their appear ance. But if you are fond of the marvelous in this line, go to the tropics: it is there that Nature plays her famous jokes. Every time that one of those marine monsters issued from his element to exhibit himself on deck, the surprised spectators could not but laugh aloud. They were not shaped at all like the fishes of our cold climate. Some seemed to us to be altogether head: turn them about as we would, it was head in front and head behind, head above and head beneath. Others were all tail: others yet, so far as it might depend on their form, had the head, I say it with respect and submission, where one might more reasonably have expected the tail.
But how can I describe their colors, the brilliant luster of those marine monsters? The dolphin is an exception to the rule - it is a fine fish, though very dry eating - several of them were thrown on deck, and the chameleon colors of the fish, of which so many wonderful lies have been sung, appeared in all their splendor: green, blue, gold, silver, each color was revealed in turn, but only for an instant: soon they vanished, and the fish became pale, ash-color, and ex pired. Toward noon a shark of uncommon size paid us a visit, accompanied by his pilots, (centronati ductores) little fishes a foot or two in length, marked with bands of dazzling white, crossed by others of brilliant blue. They piloted the shark to the piece of bacon, attached as bait to a hook of one-inch iron: the shark seized it, and feeling himself caught turned about with such violence that the hook was straightened and pulled out of his mouth. Blood appeared on the surface, but as for the shark, he returned to the abyss. Thanks to the calm, we discovered one day an old timber all covered with shells and pursued by a crowd of fishes of