Newport daily independent., 1904-09-12
FORTUNE IN PORPOISES.
Aany of the White Cetnceans Fr> suent tho Gulf of St. Lawrence,
 and Are Valuable.


 nay can almost always enjoy thesight of . number of porpoises disporting them- selves upon the water in the neighbor- hood of Tadoussac, says the New York Sun. The great white cetaceans appear like shapeless masses of blubber as their Arched backs show from time to time above the surface. They are doubtless attracted to the mouth of the Saguenay by the large number of salmon which en- ter the river throughout the season.
 A large industry is expected soon to spring up in various parts of the Gulf ot St. Lawrence in connection with the hunting of porpoises. It has already been attempted upon a small scale, but the difficulty of capturing any great number of the animals has stood in tho way of success. Now the difficulty has been overcome through the observations and experiments of Campbell McNab. Q Canadian hunter, who has spent many years in the study of these animala-
 The adult porpoise of the St. Lawrence and the North Atlantic ocean is from 12 to IS feet in length. It somewhat re-
 
 dorsal fin and mouth armed with many strong and sharp teeth. Each porpoise is believed to eat from one to three bar rels of fish day, so that 1t Is difficult to estimate the frightful ravages which they make among the salmon, the her ring and the cod. They are largely gre garious. though they often hunt their prey in couples. MT. McNab has often peered over the edge of an overhanging rock to watch them catch salmon at the mouth of a stream and sometimes long distance up a river, where they follow their prey. They chase salmon into shallow and then two approach 1t from either side. The salmon appears un able to move, as If paralyzed with fear. If he attempts to rush from one of hia pursuers he falls into the open mouth of the other.
 The porpoise Is equally expert in fish, Ing for the slippery eel. MT. McNab opened one of these animals the other day and found more than 40 cells in its stomach. To prevent their wriggling. and to aid digestion, the porpoise cracks the skull of the eel between its teeth be, tore swallowing 1t.
 Like the eel, the porpoise can live . long time out of the water. In fact, 1t is virtually amphibious. Some time ago MT. McNab shot a number of the anil mals which had been hauled ashore and bound together by their tails. After skinning another lot at some distance and taking out the blubber, he turned a few days later to the lot which had been last shot. Unknown to him one had not been killed outright. As he passed in front of 1t 1t growled at him Hike dog." he says, and opened its jaws to snap him.
 The porpoises are captured by being imprisoned at low tide on the shoals, over which they have journeyed wher the, tide was high. in pursuit of their prey. Hitherto the difficulty has been to find any barrier strong enough to retain such enormously strong, heavy beasts. and so many of them together as ara sometimes enclosed. Mir. McNab has made the interesting discovery that thA enormous nets through which they often broke are not necessary to hold bach the brutes. They are unable to stand tho slightest vibration in the water, and sn ell that the hunter now finds necessary is to fasten long thin pole like fishing rod to a stake in the mouth of the stream, the bay or tho estuary within which 1t Is desired to retain the DOT. poises. They remain to be stranded and killed upon the shallows rather than ven' ture past the vibrating rod.
 This sensitiveness is believed to havs hs seat in the ear of the animal. which has so small an opening that 1t might almost have been made with pin. For years McNab has held firmly to this theory, only to be laughed at for his pains. He has now proved 1t beyond peradventure, and has reaped the fruit of his persistence. At one tide the other day he secured 69 of the animals on tho shoals of the Portneuf river few miles below Tadoussac, and next year will pursue operations there upon larger scale. He has secured nine year lease of the shoal from the government and has apparently fortune within easy reach The skin and oil from singls porpoise are worth from $50 to $50.
 The utmost caution has to be taken not to drive the animals away from their haunts. If any of the blood or refuse O. their dead is permitted to reach the wa ter. MT. McNab declares, they will de- cert the place entirely. This is the ex- planation he gives of the present absence of porpoises from the River Ouelle and other places on the banks of the St. Law renee, where . few years ago many of them were annually killed. The DOT poiye, he says, is one of the most inte!n- fent animals created.
 Unprotected Port.
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