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CHAPTER OULYV. 
THE DOLPHINS. 
AMONG the smaller members of the cetacean family are the 
Dolphins. According to Oppien, they are “the pride and delight 
of the waves.” In every sea they are found, glancing through the 
water, darting hither and thither with great agility, and .at the 
same time flinging back from their shining skins a play of colours, 
pleasingly mixing with the spray which flies as they bound and 
play upon the surface. The common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) 
is distinguished by its long, pointed snout from the porpoise (Del- 
phinus phocena). Its mouth is furnished with a regiment of teeth. 
There is the head of a dolphin preserved in the Paris Museum, 
which exhibits no less than 104 teeth in the upper jaw, z2., fifty- 
two on each side; and ninety-eight in the lower jaw, forty-nine on 
each side, making altogether 202! These teeth are very small and 
even, white, sharp, and slightly curved. Dolphins are not deficient 
in intelligence, but Greek and Roman writers have singularly 
exaggerated their talents. They believed that they were sensible 
to the charms of music, and that they often rendered signal services 
to man. Pliny relates very gravely, that, in his own time, on the 
coast of Narbonnensis, dolphins used to help the fishermen in their 
work by catching fish for them, and were rewarded for their trouble 
by a portion of the fish, and often by bread soaked in wine. It is 
even said that dolphins have been known to carry men on their 
backs ; and a tale is told of one which was very tame, and upon 
losing sight of the child it loved, died of grief. 
Dolphins swim more rapidly than a bird can fly. They are 
often harbingers of a fresh wind, and flock from the farthest point 
of the horizon, gambolling upon the waters, as if to salute the 
vessel. Sailors look upon their arrival as a happy omen. Whole 
troops will follow ships for many days, bounding along in front, 
