John Anderson reports that "The fishermen beheve that the dol- 

 phin purposely draws fish to their nets, and each fishing village 

 has its particular guardian dolphin which receives a name com- 

 mon to all the fellows of his school; and it is this superstition 

 which makes it so difficult to obtain specimens of this Cetacean. 

 Colonel Sladen has told me that suits are not infrequently 

 brought into the native courts to recover a share in the capture 

 of fish, in which a plaintiff's dolphin has been held to fill the nets 

 of rival fishermen." (John Anderson, Account of the Zoological 

 Results of Two Expeditions to Western Yunnan.) 



The Pink-Bellied river dolphin {hiia geoffrensis) of the Trap- 

 ajos, a tributary of the Amazon, also helps its human friends with 

 fishing. Dr. F. Bruce LamK says that this dolphin, locally known 

 as the boto, "is reported to have saved the lives of helpless persons 

 whose boats have capsized, by pushing them ashore. None of 

 the dreaded flesh-eating piranhas appear when a porpoise is 

 present, for they themselves would be eaten." And he goes on 

 to give an eye-witness account of fishing with the aid of a trained 

 dolphin. "My curiosity was aroused," he writes, "by the paddler, 

 who began tapping on the side of the canoe with his paddle 

 between strokes and whistling a peculiar call. Asking Rymundo 

 about this, he startled me by casually remarking diat they were 

 calling their boto, their porpoise As we approached the fish- 

 ing grounds near the riverbank, Rymundo lit his carbide miner's 

 lamp, adjusted the reflector, chose his first harpoon, and stood up 

 in the bow ready for action. Almost immediately on the offshore 

 side of the canoe about 50 feet from us we heard a porpoise come 

 up to blow and take in fresh air." The porpoise then chased the 

 fish toward the canoe and Rymundo harpooned them with ease. 



Many ancient writers have referred to the brilliancy of the 

 changeful colors when the dolphin is dying. Byron makes refer- 

 ence to this in "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," 



"F. Bruce Lamb, "The Fisherman's Porpoise," Natural History, LXIII (1954), 231-2. 



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