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H E B R I D E S .
L d rough. The upper jaw much longer than the lower. The
ELh minute, difpofed in numbers along the jaws. The eyes
I laced at only fourteen inches diftance from the tip o f the nofe.
The apertures to the gills very long, and furnilhed with ftrainers
of the fubftance of whalebone.
I Thefe fiih are called in the Erfe, Cairban, by the Scotch, Sail-
' ilh from the appearance of the dorfal fins above water. They
i n h a b i t moft parts of the weftern coafts o f the northern feas:
[Limnus fays within the arStic circle: they are found lower, on
the coaft of Norway, about the Orkney ides, the Hebrides -, and
on the coaft of Ireland in the bay of Balijhannon, and on the
Weljh coafts about Anglefea. They appear in the Firth in June
in fmall fhoals of feven or eight, continue there till the end of
July and then difappear. They are moft inoffenfive fiih; feed
cither on exanguious marine animals, or an alga, nothing being
ever found in their ftomachs except fome difiolved greeniih
Shatter.
They fwim very deliberately with their two dorfal fins above
water, and feem quiefcent as if afleep. They are very tame or very
ftupid *, and permi t he near approach of man : will fuffer a boat to
follow them without accelerating their motion, till it comes almoft
within contaft, when a harpooner ftrikes his weapon into the fiih
as near the gills as poffible: but they are often fo infenfible as
not to move until the united ftrength of two men has forced in
the harpoon deeper: as foon as they perceive themfelves wounded,
they fling up their tail and plunge headlong to the bottom, and
frequently coil the rope round them in their agonies, attempting
to difengage themfelves from the weapon by rolling on the ground,
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