has been known to spring forward more than twenty feet at a single bound. They inhabit the European and Pacific

ocean.

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 colour before they die, and again after they are dead. Many fabulous stories have been told of the Dolphin, which has often been thus represented:

In its general form the Porpesse, 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 fortyeight 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 colours the back is black, and the belly whitish,

These fleetest coursers of the finny race,

When threatening clouds th' ethereal vault deface,

Their rout to leeward still sagacious form,

To shun the fury of the approaching storm."-Canto II. § II.

Godman.

but they sometimes vary.-Porpesses are very numerous in all the British seas, but more particularly in the river St. Lawrence, in America; 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 Porpesse 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 Porpesse yields about a hogshead of oil, and therefore renders its capture an object of consideration.

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

CHAP. VIII.

Of Cartilaginous Fishes... Of the SHARK... The White Shark... The Blue, the Long-tailed, the Basking, the Hammer-headed, and the Angel Shark... The Remora...The Pilot Fish ...The Dogfish and its Varieties... The Sawfish... The RAY... The Skate...The Rough-Ray...The Thornback...Manner of fishing for Flat Fish...The Sting Ray...The Torpedo... The Sea Devil...The Sea Eagle...The LAMPREY...The STURGEON... The Isinglass Fish...The ANGLER... The DrODON, or Sun Fish...The oblong and short Diodon...The SEA PORCUPINE...The LUMP-SUCKER...The Sea Snail... The PIPE-FISH... The HIPPOCAMPUS...The GALLEY FISH.

CARTILAGINOUS FISHES.

THE first great distinction which the cartilaginous tribe of fishes exhibits is, in having cartilages or gristles instead of bones. The size of all fishes increases with age; but from the pliancy of the bones in this tribe, they seem to have no bounds placed to their dimensions: and it is supposed that they grow larger every day till they die.

Cartilaginous fishes unite the principal properties of both the other classes in their conformation: like the cetaceous tribes, they have organs of hearing, and lungs: like the spinous kinds, they have gills, and a heart without a partition.

From this structure of their gills, these animals are enabled to live a longer time out of water than other fishes. The cartilaginous shark, or ray, live some hours after they are taken; while the spinous herring or mackerel expire a few minutes after they are brought on shore. Some of this class bring forth their young alive; and some bring forth eggs, which are afterwards brought to maturity. In

all, however, the manner of gestation is nearly the same; for upon dissection, it is ever found, that the young, while in the body, continue in the egg till a very little time before they are excluded: these eggs, they may properly be said to hatch within their body; and as soon as their young quit the shell, they begin to quit the womb also.

THE SHARK.

Or all the inhabitants of the deep those of the Shark kind are the fiercest and most voracious.

Is sometimes seen to rank even among the whales for magnitude; and is found from twenty to thirty feet long. Some assert that they have seen them of four thousand pounds weight; and we are told particularly of one, that had a human corpse in his belly. The head is large, and Somewhat flatted; the snout long, and the eyes large. The mouth is enormously wide, as is the throat, and capable of swallowing a man with great ease. But its furni

ture of teeth is still more terrible. Of these there are six rows extremely hard, sharp pointed, and of a wedgelike fig

ure. It is asserted that there are seventy-two in each jaw, which make one hundred and forty-four in the whole; yet others think that their number is uncertain; and that, in proportion as the animal grows older, these terrible instruments of destruction are found to increase. With these the jaws both above and below appear planted all over : but the animal has the power of erecting or depressing them at pleasure. When the Shark is at rest, they lie quite flat in his mouth; but when he prepares to seize his prey, he erects all this dreadful apparatus, by the help of a set of muscles that join them to the jaw; and the animal he seizes, dies, pierced with a hundred wounds, in a moment.

Nor is this fish less terrible to behold as to the rest of his form: his fins are larger, in proportion; he is furnished with great goggle eyes, which he turns with ease on every side, so as to see his prey behind him as well as before ; and his whole aspect is marked with a character of malignity: his skin also is rough, hard, and prickly; being that substance which covers instrument cases, called shagreen.

No fish can swim so fast as the Shark; he outstrips the swiftest ships. Such amazing powers, with such great appetites for destruction, would quickly unpeople even the ocean; but providentially the Shark's upper jaw projects so far above the lower, that he is obliged to turn on one side (not on his back, as is generally supposed) to seize his prey. As this takes some small time to perform, the animal pursued seizes that opportunity to make his escape.

Still, however, the depredations he commits are frequent and formidable. The Shark is the dread of sailors in all hot climates; where, like a greedy robber, he attends the ships, in expectation of what may drop overboard. A man who unfortunately falls into the sea at such a time is sure to perish. A sailor that was bathing in the Mediterranean, near Antibes, in the year 1744, while he was swimming