TUNNIES AND THEIR RELATIONS 



nets had been torn by a school of porpoises which 

 came to seize and feed upon the netted fish. Their 

 sharp teeth cut through the meshes. The fishermen 

 complained to the appropriate government depart- 

 ment, which sent them a torpedo boat armed with a 

 small gun to fire at these unpleasant visitors and 

 frighten them off. I knew the commander of this 

 vessel and persuaded him to allow me to go with him 

 the first time the ship put out. We went straight 

 out to sea, to the place where the porpoises usually- 

 appeared. Soon we saw them. As usual, they ap- 

 proached us on both sides, and began to convoy us. 

 At that moment, the torpedo boat was going at full 

 speed and making about thirty knots an hour. But. 

 despite this great speed, the porpoises outdistanced us 

 easily. They turned under the bows and played all 

 sorts of tricks about the ship without seeming in the 

 least perturbed. We watched them for half an hour 

 and then decided to try and shoot one. We missed. 

 The porpoises dived, vanished, and did not appear 

 again before evening. But the following night they 

 came back to the fishermen's nets and continued their 

 depredations by ripping them open again. As soon, 

 however, as they saw the torpedo boat coming out, 

 they recognised it and took to flight, only to come 

 back again when it had disappeared. 



These porpoises, or perhaps dolphins, clever and 

 tricky as foxes or wolves, are not fish. They are 

 mammals, and represent that class in the marine 

 world, together with the cachalots and other whales, 

 with which they form the order of Cetacea. The 

 females produce their offspring alive and feed them 

 on milk. They breathe through lungs and are com- 

 pelled to come to the surface at regular intervals to 

 get the air they need. Their fore-limbs do not look 

 like legs with paws, but like paddles or fins made all 

 of one piece and flat. Their body ends in a broad, 

 thick crescent, spread out like a fin; but this is 



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