 of the same general make. Provoke him, and he will
buckle to a shark. I have lowered for him many times, but never yet saw him
captured.
    BOOK III. (Duodecimo), CHAPTER III. (Mealy-mouthed Porpoise). - The largest
kind of porpoise; and only found in the Pacific, so far as it is known. The only
English name, by which he has hitherto been designated, is that of the fishers -
Right-whale porpoise, from the circumstance that he is chiefly found in the
vicinity of that Folio. In shape, he differs in some degree from the Huzza
porpoise, being of a less rotund and jolly girth; indeed, he is of quite a neat
and gentleman-like figure. He has no fins on his back (most other porpoises
have), he has a lovely tail, and sentimental Indian eyes of a hazel hue. But his
mealy-mouth spoils all. Though his entire back down to his side fins is of a
deep sable, yet a boundary line, distinct as the mark in a ship's hull, called
the bright waist, that line streaks him from stem to stern, with two separate
colours, black above and white below. The white comprises part of his head, and
the whole of his mouth, which makes him look as if he had just escaped from a
felonious visit to a meal-bag. A most mean and mealy aspect! His oil is much
like that of the common porpoise.
                                 * * * * * * *
 
Beyond the DUODECIMO, this system does not proceed, inasmuch as the porpoise is
the smallest of the whales. Above, you have all the leviathans of note. But
there are a rabble of uncertain, fugitive, half-fabulous whales, which, as an
American whaleman, I know by reputation, but not personally. I shall enumerate
them by their forecastle appellations; for possibly such a list may be valuable
to future investigators, who may complete what I have here but begun. If any of
the following whales shall hereafter be caught and marked, then he can readily
be incorporated into this system, according to his Folio, Octavo, or Duodecimo
magnitude: - The Bottle-nose Whale; the Junk Whale; the Pudding-headed Whale;
the Cape Whale; the Leading Whale; the Cannon Whale; the Scragg Whale; the
Coppered Whale; the Elephant Whale; the Iceberg Whale; the Quog Whale; the Blue
Whale, etc. From Icelandic, Dutch, and old English authorities, there might be
quoted other lists of uncertain whales,
