PORPOISE 107 



the salmon stake-nets by the shore and in herring-nets at sea. 

 To those who take advantage of the summer sailings on the 

 Forth, the line of black fins appearing and disappearing in 

 regular succession must be familiar. I have seldom gone an 

 excursion of any extent, in any part of the estuary and firth 

 from Alloa to the Isle of May, without observing a school of 

 half-a-dozen or more rolling along in characteristic manner. 

 In May 1887, while exploring the precipitous coast between 

 St Abb's Head and Fast Castle in Berwickshire, I observed a 

 couple of Porpoises fishing close in shore, and by remaining 

 motionless for a few minutes had the pleasure of seeing them 

 tumbling about in a pool within ten to twenty yards from 

 the rock on which I stood. 



The Porpoise was well known to Sibbald as an inhabitant 

 of both firths, and he shows, from a charter granted by 

 Malcolm IV. in favour of the monks of Dunfermline, that in 

 those days the head of the animal was esteemed a great 

 delicacy, and that it had also an economic value for the sake 

 of the oil (" History of Fife and Kinross," 1803 ed., pp. 116 

 and 295). 



KILLER OR GRAMPUS. 



ORCA GLADIATOR 



This species is probably a more frequent visitor to our 

 waters than the few authentic records of its occurrence would 

 lead us to suppose. Every now and then one hears of 

 Grampuses being seen in the Firths, but owing to the vague 

 way in which the name " Grampus " is used by the seafaring 

 population of the district, these statements can scarcely be 

 taken into account. 



Sibbald, in his " Phalainologia nova " (p. 7), records the 



