The ^ Happy' Whales 67 



with the only vegetarian examples that we have among 

 the sea-folk except some turtles and that strange 

 monster the sea-cow. But few people outside the ranks 

 of scientific naturalists have any idea of the great 

 number of varieties there are among the Dolphin. It is 

 probable that in their zeal for minute classifications, 

 naturalists have named many as distinct species which 

 were really the same but having slight variations in 

 form, colour, or even structure, due merely to Nature's 

 abhorrence to turn out two exact copies of the same 

 creature. 



When due allowance is made for this, however, it 

 remains certain that there are at least forty different 

 species of Dolphin, subdivided from nineteen genera, 

 ranging from the Orca, or grampus, of twenty feet long 

 down to the little porpoises of the Eastern seas, with 

 a maximum length of four feet, and rejoicing in a 

 scientific designation of extraordinary proportions. 

 Most of them, however, are known to seafarers by the 

 generic name of Porpoises, with the certain exceptions 

 of the killers, the white whales {Beluga), narwhals, and 

 Black Fish. For the seafarer has a curious rooted 

 exception to calling what he considers a Porpoise a 

 Dolphin, many generations of use having fastened 

 the latter name upon the beautiful Coryphcena, of 

 whom much by-and-by. 



These diminutive whales are decidedly of intense 

 interest to naturalists, as it is possible to keep them 

 in captivity and study their habits. Moreover, in a 

 slow-going ship one may spend many a pleasant hour 

 watching them as they gambol about the bows keeping 

 her strict company. Their motions are probably more 

 graceful than that of any living thing, while their 

 activity is astounding. No other creature would seem 

 to have so much superabundant vitality to throw off 



