Immediately on his deposition, however,--and events of this kind are even more common under than out of the water,--his gay colors disappear, and he sinks into his original and native ugliness.[BE] [Footnote BD: The description of Falconer must be familiar to every reader, but I cannot resist quoting it. It shows how minutely the sailor poet must have observed. Byron tells us how "Parting day Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues With a new color, as it gasps away, The last still loveliest, till--tis gone, and all is gray." Falconer, in anticipating, reversed the simile. The huge animal, struck by the "unerring barb" of Rodmond, has been drawn on board, and "On deck he struggles with convulsive pain; But while his heart the fatal javelin thrills, And flitting life escapes in sanguine rills, What radiant changes strike the astonished sight! What glowing hues of mingled shade and light! Not equal beauties gild the lucid West With parting beams o'er all profusely drest; Not lovelier colors paint the vernal dawn, When Orient dews impearl the enamelled lawn; Than from his sides in bright suffusion flow, That now with gold empyreal seem to glow; Now in pellucid sapphires meet the view, And emulate the soft celestial hue; Now beam a flaming crimson on the eye, And now assume the purple's deeper dye. But here description clouds each shining ray-- What terms of art can Nature's powers display?" ]