THE DOLPHIN. 



voyagers, has long made them famous. The Common 

 Dolphin has long been peculiarly signalized for these quali- 

 ties, which, however, it enjoys only in common with the 

 larger number of its congeners, and on these points it does 

 not merit any particular distinction. To swim with the 

 rapidity of an arrow, to shoot ahead of vessels which are 

 scudding before the breeze, to spring out of the water, and 

 over the waves, are qualifications possessed alike by all 

 the smaller Cetacea which live in troops in the ocean. 



The next Dolphin we present to the notice of the reader 

 is that of the Benedictin Pernetty. 



On the 30th of October, the vessel of Bougainville, in 

 which Pernetty sailed, being near the Cape de Verd 

 Islands, was surrounded by about a hundred Dolphins, 

 which approached very near them. " They appeared," 

 says Pernetty, " to have come only for the purpose of 

 amusing us ; they made extraordinary leaps out of the 

 water ; many of these in their capering vaulted four feet 

 high, and turned over two or three times in the air." 



One of these Dolphins, which was taken, weighed a 

 hundred pounds ; its beak was slender, and covered with 

 a thick and grayish skin. "I think," says the author, " it 

 was of that species which is named the Monk of the Sea, 

 for the anterior part of the head terminated 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 abdo- 

 men of a pearl-gray color, verging to yellowish, dappled 

 with spots, some black, and others of an iron-gray color : 

 the teeth were sharp, white, and in the form of those of 

 the pike." To these peculiar characters, Pernetty adds 

 those which are common to all the genus, and subjoins 

 one which, we believe, is often referred to by many of 

 them, viz : they exhale an odor which is so strong and 

 penetrating, that whatever substance is impregnated with 

 it, retains its for many days, in spite of all that can be 

 done to overcome it. 



