OEDEE OF CETACEA. 73 



college of fifteen priests who performed service at Rome in the 

 temple of Apollo ; caressed by Neptune, it was the sign of a calm 

 sea and the safety of sailors ; arranged round an anchor, or placed 

 above an Ox with a human face, it indicated that mixture of quick- 

 ness and slowness which is expressed by prudence." 



The figure of the Dolphin is seen on the ancient medals of 

 Tarentum and those of Paistum ; on the medals of Corinth, which 

 give to its head its true features ; on those of iEgium, in Achaia, 

 of Eubffia, of Byzantium, Brindisi, Larinum, Lipari, Syracuse, 

 Thera, and Velia, as also on those of the emperors Kero, Vitellivis, 

 Vespasian, Titus, &c. 



As the common Dolphin is very frequently met with at the 

 present day in the Mediterranean and the ocean, it is yevj pro- 

 bable that it is to this species that all the sayings of the ancients 

 refer. We must, however, mention that certain naturalists — having 

 found that the descriptions left by the Greeks cori'esjoond onlj 

 imperfectly with the common Dolphin, that the representations are 

 often unlike, and generally inexact — have thought that they 

 ought to come to the conclusion that the marvellous animal so 

 much sjjoken of by the ancients was a creation of the fancy. But 

 this opinion cannot be admitted, after the explanation given by 

 Lacepede, and from which it results that the want of accuracy in 

 the representations of the Dolphin arose from the re-spect which 

 the painters and sculptors of Greece showed to the traditional 

 image of the Dolphin which was handed down to them from their 

 most ancient artists, the contemjDoraries of Homer. 



The different species of Dolphins are extremely numerous. 



Porpoise. — Porpoises differ from Dolphias in having the muzzle 

 short, imiformly rounded, and not having the form of a beak. The 

 common Porpoise (Fig. 21) is one of the smallest of the Cetaceans ; 

 it is only one metre twenty-five centimetres in length. It lives 

 in numerous troops, and attracts attention by its merry gam- 

 bols amongst the waves. The Mackerel, the Herring, and the 

 Salmon flee before these turbulent troops of Porpoises. These 

 troops are sometimes so munerous that, at the moment when the 

 individual creatures composing them come to the sui-face to breathe, 

 they darken the surface of the ocean. One then sees their oily 

 blackish bodies shining on all sides. 



Porpoises make desperate war on the fish we have just mentioned, 



