Note 3 — CHAP. I.
Reading edition
I have never seen this necessity properly accounted for: probably the mucus which covers the fins or wings may become so consolidated by the heat of the sun, and the action of the air, that it may impede their motion; or it may be that the fish itself cannot endure to be long out of its proper element: either of these suppositions will account for its dropping so often as it were involuntarily on board ships, and into the mouth of its enemies, the dolphin, dorado, &c. ↑