250 A BOOK OF~ WHALES 



Porpus, and Porpoise the meaning of the word being 

 especially plain from the first instance ; it is of course 

 pig-fish, a suggestion of the Ungulate affinities of 

 whales which has been commended by naturalists. 

 It is a gregarious whale and often ascends rivers 

 -it has been met with in the Seine at Paris, 

 for example ; it is the commonest species of our 

 seas. 



The porpoise was once esteemed a delicacy in this 

 country, as are other Cetaceans in other lands at the 

 present day. It formed a Royal dish even so recently 

 as the times of Henry VIII. The sauce recom- 

 mended by Dr. Caius for this "fish" was made of 

 crumbs of fine bread, vinegar, and sugar. Considered 

 to be a fish, it was allowed to be eaten on fast- 

 days ! 



The porpoise, like the stormy petrel, has had the 

 reputation of presaging foul weather. Willsford (I 

 quote from Bacon), in Nature s Secrets, remarks : 

 " Porpoises, or Sea Hogs, when observed to sport 

 and chase one another about ships, expect then some 

 stormy weather." To the same effect writes Ravens- 

 croft in Canterbury Guests, or a Bargain Broke: 

 " My heart begins to leap and play like a Porpoice 

 before a storm." The French word " Marsouin " 

 applied to the porpoise is said to be derived from 

 a corruption of the German " Meerschwein." But 

 Scaliger's derivation from "marinum suem " seems to 

 be more likely. 



Pkocana tuberculifera was founded by Dr. Gray 

 upon an example which was exhibited for a short time 



