DELPHINUS. 685 
elder Pliny, -ffilian, and many of the other early writers, 
fet no bounds to the belief of the tales related concerning 
the dolphin’s attachment to the human fpecies. Pliny 
the younger, who lived in an age lefs remarkable for 
credulity, makes an apology for the ftory of the ena¬ 
moured dolphin of Hippo, which he narrates in a beau¬ 
tiful manner. 
From what caufe the ancients were prejudiced in fa¬ 
vour of the dolphin, it is not eafy to determine. The 
figure is fuch as could create no partiality; its manners, 
which are fierce and rapacious, could Hill lefs endear it ; 
and it does not appear that this fiflt fhews any attach¬ 
ment to mankind, more than the reft of the cetaceous 
tribes. It perhaps has arifen from commiferation, on 
hearing that plaintive moan, by which, when taken, it 
expreftes its fufferings. “ In a veftel where feveral dol¬ 
phins were confined,” fays an old writer, “ I fpent a 
night of great pain and uneafinefs, fo feelingly did thefe 
wretched creatures exprefs the miferies of their condi¬ 
tion, in cries and lamentations, refembling the human. 
Their fufferings forced from me tears of companion; 
and, while the fiflierman was afleep, I forced the one 
that feemed to fuft'er the greateft agony overboard into 
the fea. This aft of tendernefs availed me nothing; for 
the moaning of thofe that remained behind, feemed only 
to be increafed ; who made figns, too plain to be mifun- 
derftood, that they wiftied for a fimilar deliverance. Thus 
I fpent the night in unavailing forrow for fufferings that 
I could not alleviate.” Thefe prejudices in favour of 
the dolphin are now fo wholly obliterated, that even the 
common people regard them in a very different light. 
Their appearance is far from being deemed a favourable 
omen by the feamen; for their bounding!, fports, and 
frolics, in the water, are held to be fure indications of 
an approaching ftorm. It is not known whether thefe 
motions of the dolphin are the gambols of pleafure, or the 
effefts of fear. They probably are occafioned by fome 
prefentiment of that turbulence and commotion which is 
foon to take place in their element; a commotion which 
obliges the fmaller fifties to fink to the bottom, and which 
of courfe deprives them of their accuftomed prey. 
Almoft every thing marvellous in natural hiftory dif- 
appears on farther acquaintance, and more accurate exa¬ 
mination of the fubjeft. This has been the fate of all 
thofe extraordinary circiimftances related of the dolphin. 
So great is the number of thofe animals that play around 
this ifiand, and fo frequently are they taken, that expe¬ 
rience and ocular teftimony foon contradi6fed thofe tales 
that had been the growth of credulity and ignorance. 
The fwiftnefs of thefe animals in the purfuit of their 
prey, and their extraordinary avidity to fecure it, are 
almoft the only peculiarities (if fuch they can be called) 
which farther experience has afcertained to belong to 
them, or at lead to charafterife their manners. Belon 
long ago remarked, that they eafily came up with the 
Hiip in which he was, though in full fail before a brifk 
gale; and that they played around her, with a velocity 
refembling that of a bird in the air. This extraordinary 
fwiftnefs of the dolphin feems to be the combined effeft 
of agility and ftrength ; by means of it they are enabled 
to make dreadful havock among the falmon, herring, 
and mackrel. The dolphin, like fome other kinds of 
cetaceous animals, have been obferved to emigrate from 
one fea to another. They have been known to pafs from 
the Mediterranean into the Black Sea ; and, after having 
remained for fome time there, to return to their former 
haunts. When they are taken, as fometimes happens, in 
the nets placed for other fifties, if they are not ftrangled 
by their own efforts to efcape, they will live for a long 
time after being brought to the Ihore. One has been 
carried alive from Montpellier to Lyons. 
In former times the flefli of the dolphin was reckoned 
a great delicacy: it was bought by princes at a high 
price, and prefented at their moft formal entertainments. 
This Rondeletius declares he had more than once «b= 
Vol. V. No. 306. 
ferved, though not among his own countrymen, where 
the praftice of eating thefe fifties had entirely gone into 
difufe. This was alfo the cafe in England in the days of 
Willughby. At a more ancient period, however, thefe' 
fifties were not only eaten, but held in as high repute 
among the Englifti as any other nation. Dr. Caius fays, 
that one which was taken in his time, was thought a pre- 
fent worthy of the duke of .Norfolk, who diftributed part 
of it among his friends. It was roafted and dreffed with 
porpoife fauce ; a compofition of fine white bread mixed 
with vinegar and fugar. The fnout of the dolphin is 
narrow and pointed, not unlike the beak of Lome birds ; 
and hence the French call it oye de mer , the fea-goofe. Its 
teeth are forty in number, twenty-one in the upper jaw, 
nineteen in the lower, and bended a little towards the 
mouth. They are placed at .fuch a diftance, that each 
tooth enters into a fpace between two in the oppolite jaw.. 
The Ik in of thefe fifties is fmooth, of a dufky colour on 
the back and fides; while the belly is white. The form 
of the tail is femilunar ; that of the back fin high, trian¬ 
gular, and placed nearer to the tail than the head. This 
Ipecies of dolphin muff; not be confounded with that to 
which feamen give the name ; the latter being quite ano¬ 
ther kind of filh, the coryphana hippuris of Linnaeus, and 
the dorado of the Portuguefe. 
It is well known that the beautiful colours of moft 
fifties fade and die away quickly after the extermination 
of life : but nothing can be more beautiful than the fuc- 
ceftive changing tints that appear on the furface of the 
expiring dolphin, and the gradual progrefs of the final 
livid hue, from the extremities to the head, during the 
ftruggles of departing life ! 
3. Delphinus orca, the grampus. Specific charafter, 
fnout turned up, teeth broad, ferrate. This animal fel- 
dom exceeds the length of twenty-five feet, but is remark¬ 
ably thick in proportion, the breadth being to the length 
as ten to eighteen. It was with reafon that Pliny called 
it “animmenfe heap of flefli, armed with dreadful teeth.” 
From its refemblance to a wine-cafk in the thicknefs and 
rotundity of its form, it obtained the name of orca among 
the ancients. The nofe of the grampus is flat, and turned 
up ; the under lip is fo thick and heavy, that when the 
animal is on its belly, it is feparated from the upper. 
The teeth are (ixty in all, thirty upon each jaw ; and 
between each is a fpace adapted to receive thofe of the 
oppofite fide, when the mouth is fliut. Thofe upon 
the fore-parts are blunt, round, and flender, the inner- 
moft fharp, and of great thicknefs. The fpout-hole in 
this fpecies, is placed at the top of the neck; the animal 
is covered with a ftrong (kin, like leather, black upon the 
back, but difplaying a large fpot on each flioulder, of 
the fame colourwith the belly, which is white; the fides 
are marbled with black and white fpots. The grampus 
is of all the cetaceous fifh the moft fierce and voracious ; 
it does not even fpafle the porpoife and whale, which 
are animals of its own order and of fuperior lize; the 
latter of thefe fifli it is faid to tear and mangle in fuch a 
manner, that it bellows like a bull from the pain of its 
wounds. The fifhers who formerly repaired to the coafts 
of America, prohibited the favages from deftroying this 
filh ; for by its afliftance they were aided in the capture 
of whales, feals, and other animals : whilft the grampus 
purfued thefe, and the other monfters of the deep, they 
were frequently obliged to betake theml'elves to the (hal¬ 
low water in order to efcape its mercilefs teeth, where 
the feamen were ready to kill them with javelins and 
harpoons. This fpecies is a profitable capture for the 
fiftiers, as it is faid to yield a very confiderable quantity 
of oil; like the porpoiles, it fometimes appears upon the 
Britifti coafts; but its great retort is off. the North Cape 
of Norway, whence they are called North Capers. ' The' 
number and petition of the fins are the fame as in the 
dolphin ; and it refembles all the other cetaceous animals 
in fwimming againft the wind, and in that tumbling and 
agitation which it difeovers on the approach of a ftorm. 
