THE MONSTERS OF THE ATLANTIC. 167 



Next day, the calm was still unbroken, and as we 

 were getting rather tired of dolphins we threw our 

 lines for some of the sea-perches, which literally 

 swarmed around our stern. We caught them with 

 little pieces of bacon upon hooks whipped on to a 

 strong line. That morning we took 203 of these 

 fishes, and from three o'clock to evening 121. We 

 had a grand feast that evening, for these perch are 

 the best fish for eating that I know of. 



Next morning, at dawn, we were in sight of Key 

 West, borne thither by the current, and without the 

 slightest breath of wind having bellied our sails. 

 The man at the watch had signalled a school of 

 porpoises * ahead, gambolling on the liquid plain. 



* Some writers have classed the porpoise among the whale family, 

 as a smaller species. Its length seldom exceeds from ten to twelve 

 feet. Its exterior conformation, however, bears a very faint resem- 

 blance with that of the queen of the ocean. Its elongated head re- 

 sembles rather the head of a pig. Its jaws are furnished from end to 

 end with little pointed teeth. In its head is an aperture for blowing 

 the water, a faculty which earns for the larger species the nick-name 

 of the Whistles: Among the ancients the porpoise was accounted a great 

 delicacy. I am not of their opinion ; but there is no accounting for 

 taste. The Saxons called the porpoise sea-pig, and the ecclesiastics of 

 the middle ages gave him the same name in Latin. Porpoises were 

 purchased for Henry III.'s table in 1426, and they figure in the bill 

 of fare for a sumptuous banquet which was given to Richard II., at 

 Durham House, on the occasion of the solemn installation of Archbishop 

 Neville, when four of these creatures appeared upon the table. In 

 1491, the Bailifis of Yarmouth presented Lord Oxford with a fine por- 

 poise, accompanied by an address, in which they said that in their 

 opinion nothing could be more agreeable to his lordship. 



At the marriage of Henry V. roast porpoises were served at dinner, 

 and were considered a great delicacy. At the coronation dinner for 



