water was sent with a snort high into the air, and the huge blunt
head of a sperm whale arose before us. It was so large that it
could easily have taken our little boat, along with ourselves, into
its mouth! It plunged slowly back into the sea, like a large ship
foundering, and struck the water with its tail so forcibly as to
cause a sound like a cannon shot. We also saw a great number of
flying fish, although we caught none; and we noticed that they
never flew out of the water except when followed by their bitter
foe, the dolphin, from whom they thus endeavoured to escape. But
of all the fish that we saw, none surprised us so much as those
that we used to find in shallow pools after a shower of rain; and
this not on account of their appearance, for they were ordinary-
looking and very small, but on account of their having descended in
a shower of rain! We could account for them in no other way,
because the pools in which we found these fish were quite dry
before the shower, and at some distance above high-water mark.
Jack, however, suggested a cause which seemed to me very probable.
We used often to see water-spouts in the sea. A water-spout is a
whirling body of water, which rises from the sea like a sharp-
pointed pillar. After rising a good way, it is met by a long
tongue, which comes down from the clouds; and when the two have
joined, they look something like an hour-glass. The water-spout is
then carried by the wind, sometimes gently, sometimes with
violence, over the sea, sometimes up into the clouds, and then,
bursting asunder, it descends in a deluge. This often happens over
the land as well as over the sea; and it sometimes does much
damage, but frequently it passes gently away. Now, Jack thought
that the little fish might perhaps have been carried up in a water-
spout, and so sent down again in a shower of rain. But we could
not be certain as to this point; yet we thought it likely.