American edition of the British encyclopedia; or, Dictionary of Arts and sciences comprising an accurate and popular view of the present improved state of human knowledge Volume 4 - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1819 edition. Excerpt: ...and Gmelin four. C. phocxna, or the porpesse, is the most abundant of cetaceous animals, and is found particularly in the European seas, whence it often advances very nearly to the mouths of considerable rivers. Its general length is from five to eight feet: PorpesseB are gregarious, and frequently seen frolicking on the water, and playing their uncouth gambols, more especially in boisterous and tempestuous weather. They feed principally on smaller Kshcs, and pursue the shoals of herrings and mackrel with apparently unwearied vigour and insatiable appetite. They are covered immediately under the skin with a fatty substance of considerable thickness, and which produces a large quantity of oil. The porpesse was formerly considered, not merely as eatable, but as a species of luxury, being served up at noble and royal tables. Cuch, however, are the revolutions of taste, that by the least fastidious appetite this food is at present decidedly rejected. D. delphis, or the dolphin, has the same general habits and appearance with the preceding, but is considerably longer, measuring occasionally even ten feet. It abounds both in the Pacific and European Seas, and its appearance is in general preliminary to a tempest. It not only pursues and attacks small fish, on which indeed it subsists, but assails the whale itself, and is stated to have been seen firmly adhering to whales as they have leaped from the water. The ancients appear to have had almost a superstitious attachment to this animal, and relate various anecdotes of it, implying a peculiar susceptibility of gratitude and affection, a strong attachment to mankind, and a rapturous fondness for music. In natural history, however, the ancients were more fanciful than accurate, and, compared with the...