THE PORPOISES.
The Porpoises differ from the Dolphins in having their snout short and uniformly rounded, without a beak-like projection. Their teeth are compressed, sharp-edged, and rounded, their number from twenty-two to twenty-five in each jaw. Their skin is smooth and shining, black above and white below, and as they never attain a greater length than four or five feet from the tip of the muzzle to the extremity of their flat horizontal tail, they may be regarded as the smallest of the Cetacean Order. These animals abound in every sea, and many people have witnessed their unwieldy gambollings, the character of which is by no means badly expressed by their name (porc-poisson, hog-fishes). They have, in fact, somewhat the appearance of floating pigs, as they wallow in the trough of the sea and roll over each other amid the foaming waves.
Their food consists entirely of Fishes, of which they destroy great quantities. They follow the shoals of Herrings and of Mackerel, and when pursuing their prey, not unfrequently venture into the estuaries of rivers, and make excursions up the rivers themselves.