MAY. 
171 
the water, several feet into the air. While on the subject 
of fishes, I may allude to the White Dolphin of the St. Law- 
rence (Delphinus Canadensis ) , In coming up that river in 
summer, I saw great numbers of them frolicking and leaping 
about, like their congeners, the dolphins and porpoises of the 
ocean, from which I could not see that they differed in any 
respect, except in being all over of a pure white. The Na- 
tural History Society of Montreal offered a prize a few years 
ago for an essay on the Cetacea of the St. Lawrence, which 
was, I believe, handed in, but I have never had an oppor- 
tunity of learning the information contained in it. Seals 
also often pop up their black heads in the same river. 
C — I have seen the common Black Dolphin ( Delphinus 
Delpkis ) in shoals, while crossing the Atlantic. They are 
very amusing ; and as, when they come around a ship, they 
seem unwilling to leave her, we have plentiful opportunities 
for observation. They are in the habit of leaping out of the 
water, sometimes to the height of twelve feet, as I have seen, 
and while in the air their bodies are much incurvated. It is 
no matter how fast a ship is going, the dolphins play around 
her and under her bows, as if she were fast at anchor. Some- 
times I have seen them quite clearly through the side of a 
wave, darting along with incredible velocity, and apparently 
without an effort, leaving behind them a wake of whitening 
foam beneath the water. 
F, — They seem to revel in the storm : the prodigious 
leaps which they are so fond of making, appear to be made 
for no other reason than in mere wantonness, in the exuber- 
ance of their mirth. They are believed by sailors to indi-? 
cate the direction of the wind, as it is absurdly supposed the 
wind will shortly be in that quarter from which the dolphins 
approach the ship. I have been present at the capture of two 
individuals, one of which was taken about midway between 
England and Newfoundland in the summer of 1832. It 
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