4.84 HISTORY OF 



might have produced affection. At present, these fislies are re- 

 garded even by the vulgar in a very different light ; their appear- 

 ance is far from being esteemed a favourable omen by the sea- 

 men ; and from their bouiidings, springs, and frolics in the 

 water, experience has taught the mariners to prepare for a 

 rtorm. 



But it is not to one circumstance only that the ancients have 

 confined their fabulous reports concerning these animals ; as 

 from their leaps out of their element, they assume a temporary 

 curvature, which is by no means their natural figure in the water, 

 the old painters and sculptors have universally drawn them wrong. 

 A dolphin is scarcely ever exhibited by the ancients in a straight 

 shape, but curved, in the position which they sometimes appear 

 as when exerting their force ; and the poets too have adopted the 

 general error. Even Pliny, the best naturalist, has asserted, 

 that they instantly die when taken out of the water ; but Ron- 

 delet, on the contrary, assures us that he has seen a dolphin 

 carried alive from Montpelier to Lyons. 



The moderns have more just notions of these animals ; and 

 have got over the many fables, which every day's experience con- 

 tradicts. Indeed their numbers are so great, and, though shy, 

 they are so often taken, that such peculiarities, if they were pos- 

 sessed of any, would have been long since ascertained. They are 

 found, the porpoise especially, in such vast numbers, in all parts 

 of the sea that surrounds this kingdom, that they are sometimes 

 noxious to seamen, when they sail in small vessels. In some 

 places they almost darken the water as they rise to take breath, 

 and particularly before bad weather, are much agitated, swim- 

 ming against the wind, and tumbling about with unusual vio- 

 lence. 



Whether these motions be the gambols of pleasure or the agi- 

 tations of terror, is not well known. It is most probable that 

 they dread those seasons of turbulence, when the lesser fishes 

 shrink to the bottom, and their prey no longer offers in such 

 abundance. In times of fairer weather they are seen herding to- 

 gether, and pursuing shoals of various fish with great impetuosity. 

 Their method of hunting their game, if it may be so called, is 

 to follow in a pack, and thus give each other mutual assistance. 

 At that season, when tlie mackarel, the herring, the salmon, and 

 Other fish of passage, begin to make their appearance, the ceta- 



