The Flying Fish, to avoid its enemies, leaves the water, takes wing,
and mounts up into the air. The Dolphin is one of the most constant
of these enemies; and its velocity through the liquid element, it is
said, surpasses that of every living creature, insomuch that as it
darts along, the brilliancy and changeableness of its colours, which
cannot be described, appear like the flash of a meteor. A Flying Fish
being pursued by a Dolphin, in his eagerness to escape, took too long
a flight, and his wings becoming dry, he fell upon a rock, where his
death was inevitable. The Dolphin, in the keenness of his pursuit, ran
himself on shore at the foot of the rock, and was left by the wave,
gasping in the same condition as the other. Well, says the Flying Fish,
I must die it is certain; but it is some consolation to behold my
merciless enemy involved in the same fate.