The name is derived from the Italian word PORCO-PERCE, or hog-fish; and indeed this animal resembles a hog in many respects.

It has a long head, terminated by a projection of its jaws, which are well filled with sharp teeth, white as polished ivory.

The body is covered with a coat of fat, or blubber, from one to three inches in thickness, which yields abundance of excellent oil; and the flesh beneath is not very unlike that of a hog, but more oily, coarser, and of a darker color.

The flesh, excepting the harslet, is not much prized, though some sailors are fond of it, and rejoice at the capture of a porpoise, which gives them an agreeable change of diet.
A few days after this event, being to the southward of Bermuda, I climbed to the fore-top-gallant yard, and casting my eyes around, saw on the verge of the horizon a white speck, which made a singular appearance, contrasting, as it did, with the dark hue of the ocean and the clear azure of a cloudless sky, I called to a sailor who was at work in the cross-trees, and pointed it out to him.

As soon as he saw it he exclaimed, "Sail, ho!" The captain was on the quarter-deck, and responded to the announcement by the inquiry of "Where away ?" "About three points on the larboard bow," was the rejoinder.
We had not spoken a vessel since we left Portsmouth.