56 



FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



The porpoise is a kind of small whale, with 

 many very sharp teeth. Around our coasts it 

 eagerly pursues herrings, mackerel, and pilchards, 

 and in chase of salmon and trout comes far up 

 certain rivers. Some years ago a small porpoise 

 haunted Putney Reach, playing about between the 

 bridge and Hammersmith, but was shot by some 

 " sporting " boatman, who was afterwards fined for 

 carrying a gun without a licence. 



Porpoises are familiar objects at the seaside, 

 and occasionally one is exhibited in London on a 

 fishmonger's slab, having become hopeless!)' en- 

 tangled in the herring-fisher's drift-nets, when 

 pursuing the shoal. 



European porpoises seldom e.xceed four or five 

 feet in length, but in the wide ocean the\' often 

 measure four times as much. They are, as a rule, 

 of a bluish-black colour above, and when they roll 



