94 PORPESSE DOLPHIN. Class IV. 



much shorter than that of the dolphin, and is 

 furnished with very strong muscles, which en- 

 ables it the readier to turn up the sand. In 

 each jaw are forty-eight teeth, small, sharp 

 pointed, and a little moveable; like those of 

 the dolphin, they are so placed, that the teeth 

 of one jaw lock into those of the other, when 

 closed. The tongue is flat, pectinated at the 

 edges, and fastened down to the bottom of 

 the mouth; the eyes are small; the spout- 

 hole on the top of the head; on the back is 

 one fin placed rather below the middle; on 

 the breast are two fins ; the tail is semilunar. 

 The color of the porpesse is generally black, 

 and the belly whitish, not but that they some- 

 times vary, for in the river St. Laurence there 

 is a white kind, and Doctor Borlase, in his voy- 

 age to the Stilly isles, observed a small species 

 of cetaceous fish, which he calls thornbacks, 

 from their broad and sharp fin on the back, 

 some of these were brown, some quite white, 

 others spotted; but whether they were only 

 a variety of this fish, or whether they were 

 small grampuses, which are also spotted, we 

 cannot determine. 



The porpesse is remarkable for the vast 

 quantity of the fat or lard that surrounds the 

 body, which yields excellent oil : from this lard, 



