330 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



of the Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe islands and the 

 Icelanders, get an abundant supply of oil from them. 

 On the appearance of a shoal, the men of the locality 

 assemble, and the sailors try to get to seaward of them 

 and then drive them into shore by shouts and missiles. 

 It seems that the cries of distress of the first victims 

 further aid in attracting others to their vicinity. In 

 1809 a shoal of eleven hundred were thus taken in 

 Iceland. In 1814 a hundred and fifty were driven 

 into Belta Sound, in Shetland, and there despatched. 

 The short- finned roundhead, frequents the Atlantic 

 FIG. 83. 



THE COMMON DOLPHIN. 



coast of the Middle and Southern United States, while 

 Scammon's roundhead is found off the Pacific coast of 

 North America, where it assembles in large " schools," 

 and often enters bays and lagoons to feed on small fish. 



The dolphin, a creature from six to eight feet long, 

 pertains to a group of cetaceans which differs from that 

 to which the porpoise belongs in that, instead of having 

 a head rounded in shape, their jaws present the appear- 

 ance of a long, narrow beak, like that of many birds. It 

 is an animal renowned both in classical and mediaeval 

 literature. It was a sacred fish to the Greeks, religiously 

 venerated because when Apollo appeared to the Cretans 

 and obliged them to settle on the coast of Delphis, he 



