Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1889-10-17
Willy PoRPo1sEs.
Slippery as Trout, Cunning as Mon
KEYS, and Strong as Ponies.


Advices from the south of France
intimate that the porpoise is lording it
in q most annoying fashion on the Med.
iterranean flood. Your sea-swine is an
aggravating beast, full of cunning and
prompt at a practical joke, and he is
more than the Municipal Council of st.
Nazaire can any longer put up with.
This body has requested the French
Minister of Marine to form Commits
sion ''to study the physiology of por-
poises, that by so doing it may be dis
covered how to secure their absence
from the neighborhood Of the shore dur
ing the fishing season.
1t appears that it is an old complaint
that the porpoises of the Mediterranean
commit intolerable depredations It,
appears that each generation Of poi
poises is little cleverer than its for
bears; and, whereas the porcine rascals
used only to drive the fish into nets or
sallow water, they now encourage them
to be caught. that they may themselves
feast on the netted captives. The
Department of Marine has often been
asked to interfere, and as early as 1865
the commander of the Mediterranean
fleet formed o scheme for the destruc-
ton of porpoises, which was like one Of
the wolf laws OF the middle ages. Afea
of 5 francs was offered for every head of
porpoise, a sum raised at last to %
francs. Special nets were devised, and
the fishermen of Marseilles, Narbonne
and Port Vendres put their heads
together to entrap their enemies. As q
matter of fact they found it easy enough
to catch the porpoises, and plenty Of fish
as well. But here came out original sin
in the wicked cetacean. The nets were
slyly drawn close; the proposes mean Z
while ate the fish, their fellow prisoners,
began to lessen seriously, with the inim-
table grace of flap of their tail fins,
they lightly sprang, like salmon, over
the edge of the net and into the ocean,
The fishermen of Marseilles, Narbonne
and Port Vendres, wild with rage at
being fooled in this way, once more
brought the conduct Of the porpoises
before the notice of the Government.
The Minister was shocked, but could
suggest nothing. Three other COM
munes thereupon requested the depart
ment itself to undertake the chastise-
ment of the porpoises. There was a
long delay; but at length two gunboats,
the Ayene in 1883, and the Albatross in
1884, were sent to punish the 5sportive
pirates. They shot torpea1yS among
them, and fired cannon galore. The re-
suit was melancholy in the extreme. A
few porpoises were killed, but not many;
the majority fled out to deeper waters;
but alas the fish fled with them, SO that
it was more than q week in each case
before the fishery could be recommended
And when the fish came back, like the
ghost in the laureate's poem, the ire
pressible porpoises returned in their
company. The new report is not more
encouraging than former ones have
been. 1t says that the porpoise is an
animal ''fort agile, and that the use OF
artillery against him is worse than use
less. 1t can only suggest in a.melan-
choly way that ''the fishermen who COM
plain of the depredations Of these ceta-
ceans would do we'll to unite in organ
izing porpoise hunts, OF else in forming
mutual insurance against the lnluraes
they commit. Meanwhile the depart
ment might continue to indemnify to
certain degree the proprietors OF nets
which have been injured in any very
preposterous degree" This is cold
comfort, and is, in fact, another way OF
saying that nothing can be done with
beasts that are as slippery as trout, as
cunning as monkeys, and as strong as
ponies. Saturday Review.