ANOTHER WORLD. 
24I 
oil of the porpoise and none on its hide, and for this I feel 
grateful. Sometimes the porpoise gets into the great 
stake nets and is hauled up with other big “ fishes,” to be 
cut up and eaten ; but for the most part he is not per- 
secuted, and will frolic without fear in the very harbour 
among moving boats. This is Steno plumbeus. Doubtless 
there are other kinds, but a glimpse of a nose, then of a 
back, then of a tail, is a scanty foundation for an intimate 
•acquaintance. Whales are not uncommon, and will now 
and then collide with a fishing boat, or small pattimar, 
and send it to the bottom. 
The best view I ever had of a whale was not far from 
here, when two dark islands appeared to rise up suddenly 
not far from the boat in which I was sailing. They were 
doubtless Balaenoptera indica , the largest of all living 
things in this world. They swam peacefully, side by side, 
diving for a few seconds and then rising again. At last they 
went down into their own home and left me, as comets from 
unknown regions of the universe show themselves, and 
when we have wondered at them for a while, depart again. 
On the evening of the day on which I saw the dead 
porpoise I fell in with an old fisherman, who told me 
all about it. He had been the first to see it two days 
R 
