I have seen at least a thousand in the last few weeks. They resemble
the smelt, though larger. They start up before or near the ship in
small flocks and fly fifty or a hundred feet. By taking wing though for
short distances they are able to elude the dolphin, the swiftest of
their pursuers, who wondering what has become of them, darts on ahead.
Their escape by flying is probably as incredible to the dolphin as the
sailors tell us it was to the mother of a sailor who was questioning
him as to his experiences at sea. He told her many wonderful things,
as, that a wheel of one of Pharaoh’s chariots came up on his anchor;
that he saw a whale caught, in whose stomach was found a handkerchief
with a Hebrew word on it which a minister on shore declared to be
Jonah; that there are now fishes in the sea of Tiberias which have in
their gills fluted pieces of pearl resembling money, by which name
they are now called, and that some give them the name of “Peter’s
pence,” supposing the fishes to be descendants of the fish which Peter
drew from the sea. But when he described fishes flying in the air,
taking wing before his ship, the faith of the listener gave way; the
other stories, she said might be true, for they had a foundation in
holy writ; but flying fish were too great a tax on her belief.--One
was washed on board, whose wings, extended and dried, had a gossamer
appearance so delicate that one might readily believe them to be the
wings of something more delicate than a fish.