THE ORDER CETACEA. 97 



SUBDIVISION II. 



SPECIES II. THE BAL^ENO'PTERA ACUTO-ROSTRATA, 



OR 



SHARP-NOSED WHALE* 



The Balcenoptera Acato-Rostrala is said to inhabit 

 principally the Norwegian Seas, and to grow to the length 

 of twenty-five feet.f One of this species was killed by 

 Captain Scoresby in 1813. The baleen (some of which 

 he has preserved) is thin, fibrous, of a yellowish-white 

 colour, semi-transparent, and almost like lantern- 

 horns : it is curved like a scymitar ; and fringed with 

 white hair on the convex edge and point. Its length is 

 nine inches, and its greatest breadth two inches and a 

 quarter. One of these whales ran itself ashore on the 

 banks of the Forth, a little way above the town of Alloa, 

 on Sunday morning, October 23, 1808. About the break 

 of day, the servants of about the farm-house of Longcarse 

 were alarmed by the noise of the animal's blowing, and 

 floundering among the sludge. Assistance was speedily 

 procured from Alloa, when it was killed and secured. 



As soon as Mr. Patrick Neill, the secretary of the 

 Wernerian Society, heard of the occurrence, he set off to 

 see the animal; but it was the 1st of November by the 

 time he arrived. By this time the flensing was over, the 

 blubber had been totally removed, and the kreng, or car- 

 cass, had been sent off to float with the tide, on account 

 of its offensive smell. However, he found it on the beach 

 at the village of Lower Airth, about two miles below 



* Svnonymes. — Balcenoptera Acuto-Rostrata of La Cepede ; Baltena 

 Rostrata of Linnaeus and Fabricius ; or the Beaked Whale of the Whalers. 



t Count La Cepede states the length at eight or nine metres, which is 

 twenty-six to twenty-nine feet. 



H 



