7 6 PORPESSE. Class IV. 



but grows (lender towards the tail, forming the 

 figure of a cone. 



The nofe projects a little, is much (liorter than 

 that of the dolphin, and is furnifhed with very 

 ftrong mufcles, which enables it the readier to turn 

 up the fand. 

 Teeth. j n eacn j aw are forty-eight teeth, fmall, fharp 



pointed, and a little moveable : like thofe of the 

 dolphin, they are fo placed as that the teeth of 

 one jaw locks into thofe of the other when clofed. 



The tongue is flat, pectinated at the edges, and 

 fattened down to the bottom of the mouth. 



The eyes fmall •> the fpout hole on the top of the 

 head. 



On the back is one fin placed rather below the 

 middle ^ on the bread are two fins. The tail fe- 

 milunar. 



The color of the porpefife is generally black, 

 and the belly whitifh, not but they fometimes 

 vary ; for in the river St* Laurence there is a white 

 kind ; and Doctor Borlafe^ in his voyage to the 

 Scitty ifles, obferved a fmall fpecies of cetaceous 

 fifh, which he calls thornbacks^ from their broad 

 and fharp fin on the back, fome of thele were 

 brown, fome quite white, others fpotted : but 

 whether they were only a variety of this fifh, or 

 whether they were fmall grampufes, which are alfo 

 fpotted, we cannot determine. 

 Fat. The porpefife is remarkable for the vaft quanr 



tity of the fat or lard that furrounds the body, 



which 



