266 



HISTORY OF FISHES. 



ports concerning these animals ; as from their 

 leaps out of their element, they assume a tem- 

 porary curvature, which is by no means their 

 natural figure in the water, the old painters 

 and sculptors have universally drawn them 

 wrong. A dolphin is scarcely ever exhibited 

 by the ancients in a straight shape, but curved, 

 in the position which they sometimes appear 

 in when exerting their force ; and the poets 

 too have adopted the general error. Even 

 Pliny, the best naturalist, has asserted, that 

 they instantly die when taken out of the 

 water ; but Rondelet^ on the contrary, assures 

 us that he has seen a dolphin carried alive 

 from Montpelier to Lyons. 



The moderns have more just notions of 

 these animals ; and have got over the many 

 fables, which every day's experience contra- 

 dicts. Indeed their numbers are so great, 

 and, though shy, they are so often taken, that 

 such peculiarities, if they were possessed of 

 any, would have been long since ascertained. 

 They are found, the porpoise especially, in 

 such vast numbers, in all parts of the sea that 

 surrounds this kingdom, that they are some- 

 times noxious to seamen, when they sail in 

 small vessels. In some places they almost 

 darken the water as they rise to take breath, 

 and particularly before bad weather, are much 

 agitated, swimming against the wind, and 

 tumbling about with unusual violence. 



\Vhether these motions be the gambols of 

 pleasure or the agitations of terror, is not well 

 known. It is most probable that they dread 

 those seasons of turbulence, when the lesser 

 fishes shrink to the bottom, and their prey no 

 longer offers in such abundance. In times of 

 fairer weather they are seen herding together, 

 and pursuing shoals of various fish with great 



minated in a hood near the root of the muzzle, and 



there presented something like the edge of a cloak; the 

 back was black, and the abdomen of a pearly-gray colour, 

 verging to yellowish, dappled with spots, some black 

 and others of an iron-gray colour: the teeth were sharp, 

 white, and in the form* of those of the pike." To these 

 peculiar characters, Pe.rnetty adds those which are com- 

 rnon to all the genii-, and subjoins one which, we believe, 

 a referred to many of them, viz. that they exhale 

 an odour which is so strong and penetrating, that what- 

 e.'er substance is impregnated with it, retains it for many 

 days, in spite of all that can be done to overcome it. 



impetuosity. Their method of hunting their 

 game, if it may be so called, is to follow in a 

 pack, and thus give each other mutual assist- 

 ance. At that season, when the mackarel, 

 the herring, the salmon, and other fish of pas- 

 sage begin to make their appearance, the ce- 

 taceous tribes are seen fierce in the pursuit ; 

 urging their prey from one creek or bay to 

 another, deterring them from the shallows, 

 driving them towards each other's ambush, 

 and using a greater variety of arts than 

 hounds are seen to exert in pursuing the hare. 

 However, the porpoise not only seeks for prey 

 near the surface, but often descends to the 

 bottom in search of sand-eels, and sea-worms, 

 which it roots out of the sand with its nose, 

 in the manner hogs harrow up the fields for 

 food. For this purpose, the nose projects a 

 little, is shorter and stronger than that of the 

 dolphin ; and the neck is furnished with very 

 strong muscles, which enable it the readier to 

 turn up the sand. 



But it sometimes happens, that the impe- 

 tuosity, or the hunger, of these animals, in 

 their usual pursuits, urges them beyond the 

 limits of safety. The fishermen, who extend 

 their long nets for pilchards, on the coasts of 

 Cornwall, have sometimes an unwelcome cap- 

 ture in one of these. Their feeble nets, which 

 are calculated only for taking smaller prey, 

 suffer a universal laceration from the efforts of 

 this strong animal to escape ; and if it be not 

 knocked on the head, before it has had time 

 to flounder, the nets are destroyed, and the 

 fishery interrupted. There is nothing, there- 

 fore, they so much dread, as the entangling a 

 porpoise ; and they do every thing to intimi- 

 date the animal from approaching. 1 



Indeed, these creatures are so violent in the 

 pursuit of their prey, that they sometimes fol- 

 low a shoal of small fishes up a fresh-water 

 river, from whence they find no small diffi- 

 culty to return. We have often seen them 

 taken in the Thames at London, both above 

 the bridges and below them. It is curious 

 enough to observe with what activity they 

 avoid their pursuers, and what little time they 

 require to fetch breath above the water. The 

 manner of killing them is for four or five 

 boats to spread over the part of the river in 

 which they are seen, and with fire-arms to 

 shoot at them the instant they rise above the 

 water. The fish being thus for some time 

 kept in agitation, requires to come to the sur- 

 face at quicker intervals, and thus affords the 

 marksmen more frequent opportunities. 



When the porpoise is taken, it becomes 



no 



i During a scarcity of fish, porpoises are said to dive 

 to the bottom, and root, like hogs, among the sand, for 

 sand-eels and sea-worms. Hence in most languages 

 they receive the name of sea-hogs. Porpoise has that 

 signification in the Italian. 



