LEAVES FROM A GAME BOOK. 45 



As for the porpoises, at times one may go a long 

 time without seeing one, and then for several days in 

 succession vast shoals appear, on which occasions they 

 paid so little heed to our small boat, when anchored 

 for whiting fishing, that I have struck them with the oar 

 as they rose close to us ; also, when these thousands of 

 porpoises were rolling about on all sides of us, I took 

 the opportunity of snapping 12-bore bullets at them 

 from an old cylinder gun, but finding they could not 

 be killed stone dead, I soon gave up the attempt. The 

 natives of the West Coast at times endeavoured to use 

 the harpoon, but their weapons were of such a rude 

 character that, even when apparently fairly struck, the 

 porpoise nearly always wrenched himself jfree ; and though 

 I witnessed some good runs with the harpoon, not one 

 actual capture can be recorded. With a well - made 

 harpoon there cannot be a doubt that many porpoises 

 could be killed ; likewise, I think they might be made 

 to afford splendid sport if an attempt were made to hook 

 them with a spinning herring ; with such a lure at the 

 end of some hundreds of yards of stout line wound on 



