226 THE COMMON PORPOISE. 



They are also believed to be great enemies to the 

 salmon fisheries, and salmon hunts are frequently 

 witnessed. It is impossible to view without asto- 

 nishment the rapidity of their movements, and all 

 their turnings and twistings in pursuit of their prey : 

 the salmon are often observed to spring several 

 yards out of the water, but from the quickness of 

 their foes, it seems impossible they should escape. 



The Porpoise was at one time, even in these 

 countries, esteemed a voluptuous article of food; 

 Malcolm IV. granted to the monastery of Dun- 

 fermline those which were caught in its neighbour- 

 hood ; and it is said to have been introduced at the 

 tables of the old English nobility as late as the time 

 of Queen Elizabeth. It was eaten with a sauce of 

 bread-crumbs and vinegar. Much later than this, it 

 was a great article of consumption in some countries 

 professing the Roman Catholic faith, especially during 

 the season of Lent; and accordingly, in spring, it 

 was the peculiar object of pursuit. Sailors on long 

 voyages, in lack of fresh provisions, were often happy 

 to have recourse to it. Thus Captain Colnett, in 

 1793, narrates, that, when off the coast of Mexico in 

 the Pacific, they saw Porpoises in abundance, and 

 took many of them, which they mixed with their salt 

 pork, and so made excellent sausages ; they became, 

 he adds, our ordinary food (Loc. Cit. 124J. With 

 modern times a change has taken place in the tastes 

 of cultivated society ; but in high northern latitudes 

 porpoises are still, as they have ever been, highly 

 esteemed as articles of food. Thus Egede states, that 



