532 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Field, who saw the sight while fishing near the Channel Islands with 

 Peter le Nowry, the pilot. Having searched for this passage several 

 times, without being able to find it, I am reluctantly compelled to 

 quote from memory. They were fishing off" Guernsey, when Mr. 

 Lowe called Peter's attention to several porpoises, which seemed to he 

 engaged in a water-frolic, swimming after one another in a circle. " That 

 is no frolic, but very sober earnest for the sand-eels," said Peter. " Now," 

 he continued, "I will show you a sight which I have only chancec 1 

 to see two or three times in my life, and you therefore are very lucky to 

 have the opportunity of seeing it at all. There is a great shoal of sand- 

 eels yonder, and the porpoises are driving them into a mass ; for, you 

 see, the sand-eel is only a very small morsel for a porpoise, and to pick 

 them up one by one would not suit Mr. Porpoise, who would get hungry 

 again by the time he had done feeding on them singly; so they drive 

 them into a thick crowd, in order that when they make a dash at them 

 they may get a dozen or two at a mouthful. But, as we want some for 

 bait, we will join in the hunt." And they edged down to the spot till 

 they were within the circle. The porpoises, following one another 

 pretty closely, were swimming round, now rising to the surface, now 

 diving below, and gradually contracting the circle. The terrified sand- 

 eels were driven closer and closer, and in their fear came to the surface 

 all about the boat; and, just as two or three porpoises made a dash into 

 the crowd, snapping right and left, the fishermen plunged their nets 

 into the water, and brought them up quite full of these little fish. Of 

 course the shoal soon broke up and dispersed, but the skill with which 

 the skall was conducted and the beauty of the sight were much dilated 

 on by Mr. Lowe, and it must have been a very interesting one. 



There are many fish which hunt their prey singly, as the pike and 

 trout, and the way in which a large pike or trout will course and run 

 down a smaller fish resembles nothing so much as a greyhound cours- 

 ing a hare. Now the unhappy little fish turns from side to side in its 

 efforts to escape, while its pursuer bends and turns to every motion, 

 following close upon his track, and cutting him off exactly as a grey- 

 hound does a hare. Now he rushes among a shoal of his fellows, 

 hoping to be lost sight of in the crowd and confusion ; but the grim 

 foe behind is not to baffled or deceived, and, singling him out and 

 scattering the small fry, which fly in all directions, ruffling the surface 

 of the water like a sudden squall of wind in their fright, follows up his 

 victim with unerring instinct. In an agony of terror the poor little 

 quarry springs again and again frantically from the water, only to fall 

 at last exhausted into the gaping jaws of his ravenous fpe, who, grip- 

 ping his body crosswise in his mouth, sails steadily away to his lair, 

 there to devour his prey at leisure. Other fish hunt their food like 

 dogs or wolves in packs, as does the bonito chase the flying-fish, and 

 one perhaps of the fiercest, most savage, and resolute of these is the 

 Pirai, of South America. So fierce and savage are these little pirates, 



