?3 
THE PORPESSE. 
the dolphin : It is furnilbed with very ftrong roufcles, ’which 
enable the fifh more readily to turn up the land ; for by 
this means the porpeffe, as well as the fwine, procures a 
great part of its food. When prey fails at the furface, 
it dives to the bottom in fearch of lea worms, and land 
eels which it digs up there. 
The porpeffe is diftinguifhed from the dolphin, by the 
fuperior thicknefs of the head, as veell as the Ihortnefs of 
the nofe : It is commonly of fmaller fize ; the body grofs 
and fat towards the head, but tapering away in the form 
of a cone, till it becomes flender at the tail *. The co- 
lour of the back is generally black, and the belly white : 
This, however, is not an uniform character ; for in the 
river of St. Lawrence there is a white porpeffe; and there 
is in the Britijh channel a fmall fpecies called thorn -backs, 
that are various, fometimes brown, white and fpottedf. 
Both jaws of the porpeffe, as well as thofe of the dolphin, 
are provided with teeth ; but in the former they are much' 
more numerous, and of a fmaller fize than iu the latter 
animal. They are forty-eight in all, moveable, and fo 
fituated as to lock into each other. The eyes are fmall, 
refembling thofe of the human fpecies, both in fize and in 
the dillribution of their humours J. It has no branchite, 
nor any aperture in their place ; the fpout-hole is upon 
the crown of the head, of a femilunar lhape, and di- 
vided internally by a cartilaginous membrane, which 
appears at the fummit of the head like the comb of a 
cock. 
Towards the nofe of this animal there have been ob- 
ferved 
* Wlllough. Hift. Pile, page sS. 
•{• Britifh Zool. chfs iv. gen. 3. 
1 Dan. Major apud Willough. 
