Porpoise

por'pus, a well known animal of the coasts and harbors. It has the appearance of a clumsy fish, but in reality it is a relative of the whale, manatee, and other cetaceans. Most of all, it resembles the dolphin, but it is smaller; it has a blunt nose, and a heavier build. The name is French, signifying pork-fish. The German name is sea-swine. Although the porpoise is a degenerate land animal, the skin is smooth and destitute of hair. The eye is small and shaped like that of a pig. All members of the family require to breathe at intervals, which they do by means of a single nostril situated in the top of the head. The operation is called blowing. The breathing of the whole family, and especially that of the grampus, a twenty foot porpoise of the North Atlantic, is so noticeable that seafaring people nickname a fleshy, short-winded person a grampus. To puff and blow like a porpoise is also a common colloquial expression. Porpoises go in schools like fish. Sometimes they swim in single file, at a distance suggesting a sea serpent. They gambol goodnaturedly about in the harbors to the great satisfaction of onlookers. Like the seal, the porpoise pursues fish. Vast numbers of herring and mackerel are devoured by schools of porpoises. The skin of the porpoise is an inch thick. It is sheared down to form leather. It makes the best leather shoestring known. The flesh is dark and strong. It was once an article of diet in England, and also in Europe,--but its use as an article of food is said to be confined now to the Eskimos. See Dolphin