THE GRAMPUS. 
43 
ship’s crew, who fired at them till they lodged them in the Ouze about White- 
house, when, the tide retiring, they were all taken, and yielded great quantities 
of oil. A suit was commenced by the Earl of Donegal for the royalty of these 
large fish against the captors ; which at length, after great expense, was carried 
in favour of the royalty.” 
A fisherman at Newcastle (County Down) informed me in October, 1851, 
that porpoises are numerous on that part of the coast, and are frequently 
taken in the herring-nets. He had seen young ones of not more than ten 
pounds’ weight following the parent. 
The Grampus, Phoccena Orcci, F. Cuv., Delphinus Orca, Fabr., 
Visits the coast. 
Templeton states that it “ appears on the coast of Ireland along with the 
herring : ” Dr. J. D. Marshall, that it is “ met with in great numbers 
[about Rathlin] during summer, and is said to be very mischievous, and 
not unfrequently to endanger boats, — an observation indicating that the 
true grampus is alluded to. In M‘Skimmin’s History of Carrickfergus 
it is said to be “ an occasional visitor during summer ; ” and “ a very 
large fish called the herring-hog, seen in pursuit of others, especially of 
the herring, with a larger dorsal fin,” and hence imagined by this writer 
to be the fin-backed whale, is probably the grampus : he mentions one 
as cast ashore at Kilroot. In M‘Skimmin’s first edition, 1811, he notes 
the “ herring-hog, said to be a very large fish, often upwards of twenty 
feet long,” p. 184. 
The Cetacea mentioned in Sampson’s History of Londonderry as visiting 
that coast are the porpoise and the grampus. 
I am enabled to state that this species occurs on the north-east coast, 
from the examination of a cranium which came under my notice in 1839, 
when it was presented by Dr. Drummond to the Belfast Museum. The 
animal had been taken at Donaghadee ten or twelve years before that 
time. This cranium is thirty-two inches and a half in extreme length, and 
sixteen inches and a quarter in height; it perfectly agrees with that 
represented in Cuvier’s Oss. Foss. pi. 223, f. 3 ; edit. 1834. 
In Rutty’s Dublin it is remarked under Grampus , “ that forty-six 
were said to have been cast upon our coast in March, 1716;” but these 
were more probably Delp. melas. The grampus is included in the Fauna 
of Cork. The following paragraphs appeared in the Cork Reporter, and 
were copied into the Northern Whig, a Belfast newspaper, at the dates men- 
tioned. 
“ Shoal of Grampuses. — About ten o’clock on Sunday a shoal of grampuses, 
about sixty in number, entered our harbour, and continued their course until 
they reached Horsehead, where they turned. They were chased by all the boats 
in the harbour, and several shots were fired at them. The scene was indeed 
extraordinary ; the strange visitors rolled and tumbled about, and spouted up 
the water to a considerable height. The tide was on the ebb, and the young 
monsters, finding themselves hotly pursued, made for the harbour, which they 
passed at about twelve o’clock. Several were taken, one of them weighing over 
three tons.” N. Whig, July 31, 1841. 
“ Shoal of Whales. — Bantry Bay has been the scene of great excitement, 
high enjoyment, and most valuable occupation to the people of this locality, this 
week, in consequence of a very large shoal of whales — grampus species — which 
entered that harbour on Monday, and found their w r ay to the romantic bay of 
GlengarifF on Tuesday — the evening of which day found all kinds of boats, 
weapons, and missiles iii requisition for the attack on the herd. An immense 
number were secured, — a correspondent states three hundred, the value of 
