OF FISH. 
259 
and fastened to the shrouds, and* tubs are placed under 
them to receive the oil which they discharge; which oil 
belongs to the captain. 
In three or four days they hoist the pieces of blul 
out of the hold, chop and put them by in small pieces 
through the bung-holes into the casks. 
A whale, the longest blade of whose mouth measures 
nine or ten feet, will yield about thirty butts of blubber; 
but some of the largest will yield upwards of seventy. 
One of the latter is generally worth about one thousand 
pounds sterling; and a full ship of about three hundred 
tons burthen, will produce more than five ' thousand 
pounds from one voyage. 
The whale-fishery begins in May, and continues 
through the months of June and July: but whether the 
ships have had good or bad success, they must come 
away and get clear of the ice by the end of August: 
so that in the month of September, at furthest, they may 
be expected home; but the most fortunate ships often 
return in J une or J uly. 
Dolphin. (JJelpbinas. PI. 44.) The dolphin has 
an almost straight shape, the back being very slightly in- 
curvated, and the body slender; the n.ose is long, narrow, 
and pointed, with abroad transverse band, or projection 
of the skin on its upper part. It has twenty-one teeth 
in the upper, and nineteen in the lower jaw, somewhat 
above an inch long, conic at the upper end, sharp pointed, 
and bending a little in. They are placed at a small dis- 
tance from each other; so that when the mouth is shut, 
the teeth of both jaws lock into each other; the spout- 
hole is placed in the middle of the head; the tail is semi- 
lunar: the skin is smooth; the colour of the back and 
sides dusky; the belly whitish; it swims with great swift- 
ness, and its prey is fish. The dolphin is longer and 
more slender than the porpus, measures nine or ten feet 
in length, and two in diameter. 
All this species have fins on the back; very large 
heads, like the rest of the whale kind; and resemble 
each other in their appetites, their manners and confor- 
mation, being equally voracious, active, and roving. No 
