FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 35 



sists simply in surrounding the animals with large nets, forming 

 a great pond from which they cannot escape, and then sweeping 

 out a few at a time by means of a smaller net. Sometimes 600 

 are surrounded by the large nets, and of this number fifty or 

 sixty are hauled ashore at a time. They are drowned as they 

 come up, or if still living, are killed with knives. 



The products, which the Hatteras Porpoise Fishing Company 

 hope to derive from the capture of these animals, are primarily 

 oil and leather. There is no doubt that, if properly purified, 

 their oil would be of a high grade, and could be used to great 

 advantage in the arts. So far as the leather is concerned, it 

 must be more or less a matter of experiment for the present. 

 Unquestionably certain members of the family DelphinidcE furnish 

 excellent leather. We have in the museum some which was 

 made from the skin of the white whale. This is (or until 

 recently was) extensively used in Canada. Excellent leather is 

 also made from the skin of the blackfish, of which I have seen 

 magnificent samples. From the skin of a blackfish a piece of 

 leather of large size can be manufactured. This porpoise leather, 

 though not very thick, is exceedingly tough and entirely water- 

 proof. It has not great market value at present, excepting in a 

 limited trade, but I think this is simply because it has not been 

 put upon the market in any considerable quantities. As soon 

 as people recognize the quality of this leather, and as soon as a 

 sufficient quantity of it is made, so that it may be brought into 

 general use, I think it will become very popular in the manu- 

 facture of articles for which a somewhat thin, very tough and 

 entirely waterproof material is required. The Hatteras com- 

 pany, not satisfied to produce oil and leather only as fruits of 

 their labors, hope to render the flesh palatable as food. In this 

 I fear they will not be entirely successful. The flesh of this 

 animal has a strong, oily flavor which does not disappear en- 

 tirely until quite dry, in w-hich state it would be, I fear, too 

 tough to eat. In Arctic regions, however, the flesh of many 

 such animals is eaten. In Norway, too, the flesh of considerable 

 numbers of blackfish is consumed. It is cut up into small strips 

 and dried in the sun until quite hard. I am not familiar with 

 the process of cooking. 



