l64 . NATURAL HISTORY [Fishes. 



are gone, and retires when they return, impatient, I suppose, 

 of the cold of our winters ; but however this is, not a porpesse 

 is to be seen in these seas in the more rigorous season, though 

 in summer we can scarce cross a sound without seeing two or 

 three of them blowing round the boat. 



Porpesses sometimes set into the small baj's in vast num- 

 bers, and are inclosed and drove ashore by the people, who 

 are always upon the watch, and often make a good deal by 

 the capture. They are fat, and yield, for their bulk, a good 

 deal of oil. The people here tell us (with what truth I know 

 not), that porpesses have so much of the nature of swine, that 

 force one ashore, the rest will every one follow, though there 

 were a thousand in the flock. If this is the case, this is not 

 the only thing in which these creatures agree in their natures, 

 as is well known to those conversant in the study of nature : 

 their method of life is in some respects the same* ; the con- 

 formation of their parts something similar ; and a " porpesse 

 " has the warm blood and entrails of a hog-f-." 



* Vide Brit. Zool. tit. Porpesse. 



t Mr Locke, quoted by Baker, Mic. p. 309. 



