482 HisTOKY or 



fluid rather tliiimer than oil, and of a yellowish colour. There 

 are never seen more than four at a time in one of these bags ; 

 and that which weighed twenty pounds, and which was the larg- 

 est ever seen, was found single. These balls of ambergris are 

 not found in all fishes of this kind, but chiefly in the oldest and 

 strongest. The uses of this medicine for the purposes of luxury, 

 and as a perfume, are well known ; though upon some subjects 

 ignorance is preferable to information. 



CHAP. VI. 



OF THE DOLPHIN, THE GRAMPUS, AND THE PORPOISE, WITH 

 THEIR VARIETIES. 



Alt, these fish have teeth both in the upper and the lower jaw, 

 and are much less than the whale. The Grampus, which is the 

 largest, never exceeds twenty feet.* It may also be distinguished 

 by the flatness of its head, which resembles a boat turned upside 

 down. The Porpoise resembles the grampus in most things ex- 

 cept the snout, which is not above eight feet long ; its snout also 

 more resembles that of a hog. The Dolphin has a strong re- 

 semblance to the porpoise, except that its snout is longer, and 

 more pointed. They have all fins on the back ; they all have 

 heads very large, like the rest of the whale-kind ; and resemble 

 each other in their appetites, their manners, and conformations ; 

 being equally voracious, active, and roving, f 



• The Gladiator or Sea-sword, a formidable enemy to the Greenland 

 whale, has often been confounded with Uie GrampiiB. The grampus haa 

 the top of the head rather flat, the enout less obtuse, the upper jaw longer 

 than the lower, while in the gladiator both are of equal length. The teeth 

 of the grampus are blunt, and the dorsal fin placed about the middle of the 

 back, and proportionally not so long a.s in the gladiator. Indeed it is from 

 the remarkable length and firmness of this fin in the gladiator, that it has 

 received the name of sea-sword. 



+ The Dolphin tribe of cetaceous fishes cximprehends about 13 species, )1 

 with the dorsal fin, and the others without. Soosoo is the name which the 

 Bengalose about Calcutta give tx) a species of dolphin found in the Ganges, 

 especially in the slow-moving labyrinth of rivers and creeks which intiTso«t 

 the Delta of that river to the .south, S E. and E. of Calcutta. 'i"he descrip- 

 tion of this new species we owe to Dr Roxburgh, who distinguishes it by 



