Within the American gulf we saw not only these Spanish men of War, but another kind too, for which the Sailors had no other name but that of a blubber. It was of the size of a pewter plate, brown in the middle, with a pale margin, which was in continual motion.
Of the Lepas anatifera Linn. I saw on the 30th. of August a log of wood, which floated on the ocean, quite covered. Of insects I saw in the channel, when we were in sight of the Isle of Wight several white butterflies, very like to the Papilio Brassicæ Linn. They never settled, and by their venturing at so great a distance from land they caused us just astonishment.
Some common flies were in our cabbin alive during the whole voyage, and it cannot therefore be determined whether they were originally in America, or whether they came over with the Europeans.
Of Cetaceous fish we met with Porpesses, or as some sailors call them Sea-hogs[2] (Delphinus [[17]]Phocæna, Linn.) first in the channel and then they continued every where on this side the Azores, where they are the only fish navigators meet with; but beyond these isles they are seldom seen, till again in the neighbourhood of America we saw them equally frequent to the very mouth of Delaware river. They always appeared in shoals, some of which consisted of upwards of an hundred individuals; their swimming was very swift, and though they often swam along side of our ship, being taken as it were with the noise caused by the ship cutting the waves, they however soon outwent her, when they were tired with staring at her. They are from four to eight feet long, have a bill like in shape to that of a goose, a white belly, and leap up into the air frequently four feet high, and from four to eight feet in length; though their snoring indicates the effort which a leap of [[18]]that nature costs them. Our sailors made many vain attempts to strike one of them with the harp iron from the forecastle, when they came within reach, but their velocity always eluded their skill.
Another cetaceous fish, of the Dolphin kind,[3] with which we met, is called by the sailors Bottle-nose, it swims in great shoals, has a head like a bottle, and is killed by a harpoon, and is sometimes eaten. These fish are very large, and some fully twelve feet long; their shape, and manner of tumbling and swimming make them nearly related to Porpesses. They are to be met with every where in the ocean from the channel to the very neighbourhood of America.
One Whale we saw at a distance, and knew it by the water which it spouted up.
A Dog-fish of a considerable size followed the ship for a little while, but it was soon out of sight, without our being able to determine to which species it belonged: [[19]]this was the only cartilaginous fish we saw on the whole passage.
Of the bony fish, we saw several beyond the Azores, but never one on this side of those isles, one of them was of a large size, and we saw it at a distance; the sailors called it an Albecor, and it is Dr. Linnæus’s Scomber Thynnus.
The Dolphin of the English is the Dorado of the Portugueze, and Dr. Linnæus calls it Coryphæna Hippuris; it is about two feet and a half long, near the head six inches deep, and three inches broad; from the head the Dolphin decreases on all sides towards the tail, where its perpendicular depth is one inch and a half, and its breadth hardly one inch. The colour of the back near the head is a fine green on a silver ground, but near the tail of a deep blue; the belly is white, and sometimes mixed with a deep yellow, on the sides it has some round pale brown spots. It has six and not seven fins as was imagined; two of them are on the breast, two on the belly, one at the tail extending to the anus, and one along the whole back, which is of a fine blue: when the fish is just taken the extremities of the most outward rays in the tail were eight inches one from another. Their motion when they [[20]]swam behind, or along side of the ship was very slow, and gave a fair opportunity to hit them with the harpoon, though some are taken with a hook and line, and a bait of chicken bowels, small fish, or pieces of his own species, or the flying fish, which latter are their chief food: and it is by their chasing them, that the flying fish leave their element to find shelter in one to which they are strangers. The Dolphins sometimes leap a fathom out of the water, and love to swim about casks and logs of wood, that sometimes drive in the sea. They are eaten with thick butter, when boiled, and sometimes fried, and afford a palatable food, but rather somewhat dry. In the bellies of the fish of this species which we caught, several animals were found, viz. an Ostracion; a little fish with blue eyes, which was yet alive, being just the moment before swallowed, and measuring two inches in length; another little fish; a curious marine insect, and a flying fish, all which not yet being damaged by digestion, I preserved in spirits.
The Flying Fish (Exocoetus volitans, Linn.) are always seen in great shoals, sometimes of an hundred or more getting at once out of the water, being pursued by greater fish, and chiefly by Dolphins; they rise about a yard, and even a fathom above the water [[21]]in their flight, but this latter height they only are at, when they take their flight from the top of a wave; and sometimes it is said they fall on the deck of ships. The greatest distance they fly, is a good musket-shot, and this they perform in less than half a minute’s time; their motion is somewhat like that of the yellow-hammer, (Emberiza Citrinella, Linn.). It is very remarkable that I found the course they took always to be against the wind, and though I was contradicted by the sailors, who affirmed that they went at any direction, I nevertheless was confirmed in my opinion by a careful observation during the whole voyage, according to which they fly constantly either directly against the wind, or somewhat in an oblique direction.[4]