BLACKFISH OF THE DOLPHIN FAMILY 147 



White "Whale" consists of such fish as flounders, halibut, 

 cod, salmon and eels, and also of squids and prawns. In 

 the St. Lawrence River there is a fishery of considerable 

 importance. 



The Blackfish 1 is not a fish, but a jet-black member 

 of the Dolphin Family, 15 to 18 feet long, and is shaped very 

 much like a small sperm whale. The head has the same 

 square-ended, sawed-off appearance, and a barely perceptible 

 snout. It is one of the most abundant and important of 

 the small cetaceans of the east coast of North America. 

 Thousands of them have been stranded, or deliberately 

 driven into shallow water, on Cape Cod, sometimes over a 

 hundred in one school. The yield of oil from a single Black- 

 fish varies from ten gallons to ten barrels. The jaw yields 

 a fine quality of oil much used for sewing-machines and 

 known as porpoise- jaw oil. The value of a stranded Black- 

 fish on Cape Cod varies from $5 to $40. (G. Brown 

 Goode.) 



Once on a voyage from South America to New York, we 

 sighted a large school of Blackfish, travelling south and 

 playing by the way. Some chased each other, lazily, and 

 half a dozen of them stood on their tails in the water, per- 

 fectly erect, with their heads six or seven feet high in the air, 

 as if to look at the ship. Those so standing looked like big, 

 black posts, all ready for wharf -building. 



The Grampus, or Cow-"Fisii," 2 of our Atlantic coast 

 inhabits the same waters as the preceding species, but is 

 not nearly so numerous or so stupid in getting stranded in 



1 Glob-i-ccph'a-la nte'las. 2 Gram' pus i/ris'e-us. 



