MAY. 171 



the water, several feet into the air. While on the subject 

 of fishes, I may allude to the White Dolphin of the St. Law- 

 rence (Delphinus Canadensis). In coming up that river in 

 summer, I saw great numbers of them frolicking and leaping 

 about, like their congeners, the dolphins and porpoises of the 

 ocean, from which I could not see that they differed in any 

 respect, except in being all over of a pure white. The Na- 

 tural History Society of Montreal offered a prize a few years 

 ago for an essay on the Cetacea of the St. Lawrence, which 

 was, I believe, handed in, but I have never had an oppor- 

 tunity of learning the information contained in it. Seals 

 also often pop up their black heads in the same river. 



C. I have seen the common Black Dolphin (Delphinus 

 Delphis) in shoals, while crossing the Atlantic. They are 

 very amusing ; and as, when they come around a ship, they 

 seem unwilling to leave her, we have plentiful opportunities 

 for observation. They are in the habit of leaping out of the 

 water, sometimes to the height of twelve feet, as I have seen, 

 and while in the air their bodies are much incurvated. It is 

 no matter how fast a ship is going, the dolphins play around 

 her and under her bows, as if she were fast at anchor. Some- 

 times I have seen them quite clearly through the side of a 

 wave, darting along with incredible velocity, and apparently 

 without an effort, leaving behind them a wake of whitening 

 foam beneath the water. 



F. They seem to revel in the storm : the prodigious 

 leaps which they are so fond of making, appear to be made 

 for no other reason than in mere wantonness, in the exuber- 

 ance of their mirth. They are believed by sailors to indi- 

 cate the direction of the wind, as it is absurdly supposed the 

 wind will shortly be in that quarter from which the dolphins 

 approach the ship. I have been present at the capture of two 

 individuals, one of which was taken about midway between 

 England and Newfoundland in the summer of 1832. It 



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