Ocea?i between Europe and America. 1 7 



phinus Pbocctna, Linn.) firfl in the channel 

 and then they continued every where on this 

 fide the Azores, where they are the only fifh. 

 navigators meet with; but beyond thefe ifles 

 they are feldom feen, till again in the 

 neighbourhood of America we faw them 

 equally frequent to the very mouth of De- 

 laware river. They always appeared in 

 fhoals, fome of which confided of upwards 

 of an hundred individuals ; their fwimming 

 was very fwift, and though they often 

 fwam along fide of our fMp, being ta- 

 ken as it were with the noife caufed by the 

 fhip cutting the waves, they however foon 

 outwent her, when they were tired with 

 ftaring at her. They are from four to eight- 

 feet long, have a bill like in fhape to that 

 of a goofe, a white belly, and leap up into 

 the air frequently four feci high, and from 

 four to eight feet in length ; though their 

 fnoring indicates the effort which a leap of 



Porcopefce, given to this genus by the Italians ; and it is re- 

 markable that almofl all the European nations conipired in, 

 calling them Sea-hogs, their name being in German Meet 

 Sch-xvein ; the Danijh, Sxvedi/h, and Norwegian, Mar/uin, from 

 whence the French borrowed their Mar/ouin. The natives of 

 Iceland call them Suinhual, i. e. a Sxvine-<whak, and fo like- 

 wife the Slavonian nations have their Sxvinia Morjkaya. Whe- 

 ther this confent arifes from their rooting the fand at the bot- 

 tom of the fea in queft of Sand-eels and Sea-worms like 

 fwine, or from the vaft quantity of lard furrounding their 

 bodies is uncertain. F. 



B that 



