FACTORS OF DESTRUCTION 105 



belugas, dolphins among the cetaceans, and among the 

 fish the sharks and large dog-fish, of which the most 

 pernicious are the prickly dog-fish, the blue-skins, the 

 white dog-fish, and the squatinae, or angel-fish ; and among 

 the molluscs the cuttlefish. 1 Porpoises give perpetual 

 chase to the sardines, anchovies, mackerel and herring. 

 Each individual porpoise devours an average of two 

 barrels of fish per diem. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 gluttony of this kind destroys more than 300 millions of 

 barrels in twenty-four hours. In 1901 the inscripts 2 of 

 Baynuls, of Collioure and of Leucate were forced to 

 abandon the fisheries on account of the porpoises. The 

 Bretons dread them ; but extraordinary paradox the 

 Basques, far from having any fear of them, regard them 

 rather in the light of dogs which put up the game. What is 

 truth on this side of the Pyrenees is error on the other side. 

 The belugas and dolphins, endowed with considerable 

 intelligence, wait until the sardines are caught in the 

 meshes of the net before falling upon their prey ; the 

 damage that they do is therefore double : loss of fish 

 and loss of nets. On the coasts of England, some years 

 ago, the supply of sardines was abundant ; but they were 

 destroyed or dispersed by the prickly dog-fish. The 

 blue shark and the white shark, or touilh, are by no 

 means outdone by the prickly dog-fish. In 1882 they 

 caught in a net at Marseilles a white shark weighing just 

 over a ton. Even if we admit, says M. Gobin, that it 

 requires only 20 Ibs. of small fish to increase the weight 



1 Sea birds also work great havoc, pursuing shoals of fish as they 

 pass along the surface, flying-fish, &c. But it is difficult to estimate 

 the extent of their destructiveness. Mr. Spencer Walpole estimates 

 that voracious fish and sea-birds together devour 3,000 million 

 herrings annually in the North Sea alone. 



2 Inscripts : sea-faring men, commonly fishermen, inscribed upon 

 the register of those who may be called upon to serve in the navy. 



