< 2274 ) 
An Account of the DipBion of a Porpefs , promt fed Numb. 74 . 
made^ and commmicated in a Letter of sept^ 12. i6yi ^ by the 
Learned Mr, John Ray , having therein obfervd fome things 
omitted by Rondelecius. 
SIR3 
A Bout the later end of April 1669, being at Weftchefter 
with my Lord Biftiop of that Diocefs , in the company 
of Fr, IVillugbby Efq; I had the good fortune to meet with a 
young /^(?/^^^// of a convenient fize for Diflediion ; brought 
thither by iome Fifhermen, who caught him upon the Sandf^ 
where the Tide had left him; in the Anatomy whereof I 
obku ved (ome things omitted hy I^ondeletiuf in his Defcrips 
tion of the Dolphin^ 
The length of this was by mcafure 3 feet and 7 inches. 
A ftring of 2 feet and 2 inches girded him in the thickeft 
place* The fiiape of his body was not much ur>Jike that of a 
Tunny fijh 5 only his faout longer and ffiarper. His skin was 
thin, fmooth, and without fcales* In an old and well grown 
fifh its like the skin may be thick and tough 5 as l^ondeletius 
reprelents if. 
His Fins are cartilagineous , and flexible, not (harp or 
prickly 5 as the Ancients report them* On his back he hath 
only one^ which was diftant from the tip of his fnout i foot 
and 9 inches 5 and the bafis of it in length 5j inches 3 fo that 
meafuring from the tip of his fnout to the end of the tayl , it 
was Icituate fomewhat below the middle of the fifbes length. 
On the Belly it had only one pair of fins, qI inches diftant 
from the tip of the lower mandible, much about the place, 
where the foremoft pair of fins in other fifties ufually grow. 
The Tayl is forkedj of the figure of a Crefcent^ the breadth 
thereof from angle to angle 1 1 inches. The [itiis or pofition 
cf it contrary to that of all other fifhes , except thofe of this 
kind. For.whereas the plain of the tayl of other fiilies^when 
they fwim,ftands erected perpendicularly to the plain of the 
Horizon, in this fifh ( and I fuppofe in all others of the Ceta- 
ceous kind ) it lyes parallel thereto* The reafon whereof I 
conceive tahtpartly to (upply the ufe of the hindmoft pair 
