No. 711
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 4, 2025

The White Porpoise.

We give in our present number a correct sketch of one of the largest specimens of the Porpoise that
March 16, 2015
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Tag: South Dakota

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Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
| The Reign of Outlawry.

The White Porpoise.

The White Porpoise

White Porpoise, caught in the river Saginaw, by Capt. Leyfield, of the Patapsoot. 

We give in our present number a correct sketch of one of the largest specimens of the Porpoise that has ever been seen. It was sketched by our artist as it laid on pier No 13. Its measurement is about twenty-five feet in length, and weighs two thousand eight hundred and sixty pounds. It was caught by Captain Leyfield, of the Patapsoot, in the Saginaw river, and was brought on here by him as a curiosity fit to astonish even a New Yorker.

It is supposed, from its immense size, and the decayed condition of its teeth, to be nearly two hundred years old, which supposition is borne out by the fact that it has become perfectly white. The Porpoise is of the mammalia genus, and is one of the must universal of fishes, being found in every sea. It is somewhat singular, consider the large quantity of blubber found in these creatures, that no regular fishery has been established to convert them into oil. We understand that it is the intention of the owner to exhibit it in the Palace Garden

It is now at the store of Mr. Rowe, 15 Albany street.


Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, February 4, 1860.