in length, and three or four in circumference. Its flesh is a white, well tasted, and salubrious food. When the thicker parts of the skin are cut into slices and dried, they become exceedingly tough, and form good whips. Of the thinner parts, which have more pliability, the Indians make thongs to fasten together the sides of their canoes.

THE DOLPHIN.1

THIS is a distinct animal from the small fish which sailors call by the same name; and though so often painted as being of the shape of the letter S, the dolphin is almost straight, the back being very slightly incurvated, and the body slender. The nose is long, narrow, and pointed, with a broad transverse band, or projection of the skin on its upper part. From the shape of the nose, the animal has been called the sea-goose. The mouth is very wide, and 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 distance 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 semilunar; the skin is smooth; the color of the back and sides dusky; the belly whitish. It swims with great swiftness, and its prey is fish, but particularly cod, herrings, and flat fish. The dolphin is longer and more slender than the porpoise, measuring nine or ten feet in length, and two in diameter.

All this species have fins on the back; and resemble each other in their appetites, their manners, and conformation, being equally voracious, active, and roving. No fish could escape them, but from the awkward position of their mouth, which is placed in a manner under the head. Their own agility is so great, as to prevent them from being often taken; and they seldom remain a moment above water. Their too eager pursuit after prey occasionally, however, exposes them to danger; as they will sometimes follow the object of their pursuit even into the nets of the fishermen.

1 Delphinus delphis, LIN. The genus Delphinus has teeth variable in number, of a canine form, sometimes compressed and dentated on their cutting margins, from two hundred to none at all; jaws more or less advanced in form of a beak; spiracles with a crescent shaped aperture; an adipose, dorsal fin, or a longitudinal fold of the skin; tail flattened horizontally, and bifurcated,

A shoal of dolphins will frequently attend the course of a ship, for the scraps that are thrown overboard, or the barnacles adhering to their sides. A shoal of them followed the ships of Sir Richard Hawkins, upwards of a thousand leagues. Their gambols and evolutions on the surface of the water are often very amusing. A dolphin has been known to spring forward more than twenty feet at a single bound. They inhabit the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The flesh, though tolerably well tasted, is dry and insipid; the best parts are near the head. It is seldom eaten but when young and tender. Dolphins are said to change their color before they die, and again after they are dead.

In its general form, the porpoise, or porpus, very much resembles the dolphin. It is, however, somewhat less in size, and has a snout much broader and shorter. It is generally from six to seven feet in length; its body is thick towards the head, but grows slender towards the tail, forming the figure of a cone. In each jaw are forty-four to fifty teeth, small, sharp pointed, and moveable; and so placed that the teeth of one jaw lock into those of the other. The eyes are small, as is the spout-hole at the top of the head. In colors the back is black, and the belly whitish, but they sometimes vary.

Porpoises are very numerous in the river St Lawrence, where there is a white kind. They are seldom seen, except in troops of six or seven to thirty and upwards; and, like the dolphin, they are very agile and sportive. In the most tempestuous weather, they can surmount the waves, and pursue their course, without injury. Seamen have a superstitious detestation of them, because they believe their appearance to be ominous of approaching storms.

These animals live chiefly on the smaller fish. At the season when mackerel, herrings, pilchards, and salmon appear, the porpoise swarms;

and such is its violence in pursuit of its prey, that it will follow a shoal of small fish up a fresh water river, from whence it finds a difficulty to return. These creatures have been often taken in the river Thames, both above and below London bridge; and it is curious to observe with what dexterity they avoid their pursuers, and how momentarily they recover their breath above the water. It is usual to spread four or five boats over the part of the river where they are seen, and to fire at them the instant they rise. One porpoise yields about a hogshead of oil, and therefore renders its capture an object of consideration.

It is said that, whenever a porpoise happens to be wounded, all the rest of its companions will immediately fall upon and devour it.

Is about twenty-four feet in length. It is a clumsy, unsightly fish, dark on the upper part, but very white below. The lower jaw is considerably wider than the upper. The back fin sometimes measures six feet. The grampus is an exceedingly voracious animal, which does not always spare even its own kind. Packs of them are said to attack the Greenland whale, like bull dogs, and tear off his flesh in masses. It, however, displays the utmost solicitude and affection for its young. Little oil is afforded by the grampus. It floats deep in the water, and would seldom be caught, did not its eagerness for prey prompt it to rush into shallow waters, where it is killed, but not till it has made a desperate and formidable resistance.

THE NARWHAL, OR SEA-UNICORN,2

SELDOM exceeds twenty-two feet in length. Its body is slenderer than that of the whale, and its fat not so abundant. But this great animal is sufficiently distinguished from all others of the deep, by its tooth or teeth, which stand pointing directly forward from the upper jaw, and are from nine to ten feet long. In all the variety of weapons with which nature has armed her various tribes, there is not one so large or so formidable as this. This terrible weapon is generally found single; and some are of opinion that the animal is furnished with but one by nature but there is at present the skull of a narwhal, at the Stadthouse at Amsterdam, with two teeth. The tooth, or as some are pleased to call it, the horn of the narwhal, is as

1 Delphinus grampus, DESм.

2 Monodon monoceros. This is the only one of the genus. The characteristics are one or two large tusks in the upper jaw; general form analogous to the dolphin's; orifice of the spiracles united on the top of the head; a longitudinal dorsal crest.

straight as an arrow, about the thickness of the small of a man's leg, wreathed in the manner we sometimes see twisted bars of iron. It tapers to a sharp point; and is whiter, heavier, and harder than ivory. It is generally seen to spring from the left side of the head, directly forward, in a straight line with the body; and its root enters into the socket above a foot and a half. Notwithstanding its appointments for combat, this long and pointed tusk, amazing strength, and matchless celerity, the narwhal is one of the most harmless and peaceful inhabitants of the ocean. It is seen constantly and inoffensively sporting among the other great monsters of the deep, no way attempting to injure them, but pleased in their company. The Greenlanders call the narwhal the forerunner of the whale; for wherever it is seen, the whale is shortly after sure to follow. This may arise as well from the natural passion for society in these animals, as from both living upon the same food. The narwhal is much swifter than the whale, and would never be taken by the fishermen, but for those very tusks, which at first appear to be its principal defence. These animals are always seen in herds of several at a time; and whenever they are attacked, they crowd together in such a manner, that they are mutually embarrassed by their tusks. By these, they are often locked together, and are prevented from sinking to the bottom. It seldom happens therefore, but the fishermen make sure of one or two of the hindmost, which very well reward their trouble.

THIS tribe is not of such enormous size as the whale, properly so called, not being above sixty feet long and sixteen feet high. In consequence of their being more slender, they are much more active than the common whale;

1Physeter macrocephalus, DESM. The genus Physeter has eighteen to twenty-three inferior teeth on each side of the jaw; upper jaw broad, elevated, without teeth, or with these short and concealed in the gum; lower jaw elongated, narrow, corresponding to a furrow of the upper, and armed with thick and conical teeth, entering into corresponding cavities of the upper jaw; spiracular orifices united at the upper part of the snout; a dorsal fin in some species, a simple eminence on others; cartilaginous cavities in the superior region of the head, filled with oily matter.

they remain a longer time at the bottom, and afford a smaller quantity of oil. As in the common whale, the head makes a third part of its bulk, so in this species the head is so large as to make one half of the whole. Their throats are much wider than those of the common whale, as may be judged from the fact, that the remains of sharks more than twelve feet long have been found in their stomachs. The cachalot is as destructive among the lesser fishes as the whale is harmless; and can at one gulp swallow a shoal of fishes down its enormous gullet. Linnæus tells us that this fish pursues and terrifies the dolphins and porpoises so much, as often to drive them on shore.

But, how formidable soever this fish may be to its fellows of the deep, it is by far the most valuable, and the most sought after by man; as it contains two very valuable drugs, spermaceti and ambergris. The whole oil of this fish is very easily convertible into spermaceti. This is performed by boiling it with a ley of potash, and hardening it in the manner of soap. Candles are now made of it, which are substituted for wax, and sold much cheaper.

As to the ambergris, which is sometimes found in this whale, it was long considered as a substance found floating on the surface of the sea; but time, that reveals the secrets of the mercenary, has discovered that it chiefly belongs to this animal, The name, which has been improperly given to the former substance, seems more justly to belong to this; for the ambergris is found in the place where the seminal vessels are usually situated in other animals. It is found in a bag of three or four feet long, in round lumps, from one to twenty pounds weight, floating in a fluid rather thinner than oil, and of a yellowish color. There are never seen more than four at a time in one of these bags; and that which weighed twenty pounds, and which was the largest ever seen, was found single. These balls of ambergris are not found in all fishes of this kind, but chiefly in the oldest and strongest. The blunt headed cachalot is fifty-four feet in length. Its greatest circumference is just beyond the eyes, and is thirty feet. The upper jaw is five feet longer than the lower, which is ten feet. The head is above one third the size of the fish. The end of the upper jaw is blunt, and near nine feet high; the spout-hole placed near the end of it. The teeth are placed in the lower jaw, twenty-three on each side, all pointing outwards; and, in the upper jaw, opposite, are a number of holes to receive them when the mouth is closed. They are about eighteen inches long.

The spermaceti cachalot is found in greatest abundance in the Pacific ocean, where large numbers of them are annually killed by the American and other whalers, for the sake of their oil and spermaceti.

The spermaceti cachalot is gregarious, and herds are frequently seen containing two hundred or more individuals.

The mode of attacking these animals, is as follows: Whenever a number of them are seen, four boats, each provided with two or three lines, two