Or, had a whale come bearing down from upper waters, as they sometimes
do, there would have been a disturbance first, made by the spouting and
slashing that our instinct at once would have told us came from some
monster of the deep.

Or, again, had it been the hulk of a vessel that could not stand some
violent storm, oh, yes, we should have known what that was, too. But
now, off tore the fishes, mad with terror, big fishes, little fishes,
fat fellows, lean fellows, pleasant ones, and grumblers.

I laughed, yes, with all my fright I had to laugh at such a funny sight.
I was behind what Folks call "whole schools of fishes," only they speak
of "a school of fish," meaning many of one kind, but the madcap crowd I
looked upon was made up of almost every size and sort.

[Illustration: "OFF TORE THE FISHES, MAD WITH TERROR"]

I saw a porpoise--porpus--my enormous cousin, all of fifteen feet
long, crowd in midst a multitude of swift little swimmers, as if he
meant to make them help in spinning him through the water faster than he
could go by himself. Then on the back of another Dolphin, I saw a crowd
of little fishes that seemed so stiff with fear, they had been knowing
enough to cling to the back of the great fish, making a boat of him to
bear them to a place of safety.

Paddling sideways, I caught a glimpse of the flying-fish that had been
my tormentor. All at once I stopped short.

Now they say that some Folks are very curious. I do not mean that they