J 00 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



arm-bone, or ball which is received into the cavity of the 

 scapula or shoulder-blade, were nearly five feet long. In 

 breadth, at the widest part, they did not extend to one 

 foot, tapering to a pretty sharp point. They were nar- 

 row at their junction with the body. The socket that 

 received them was large, being four inches and three 

 quarters in diameter. 



The dorsal or largest vertebrse were eight inches in 

 diameter. None of the others were laid open so as to 

 admit of examination. The animal was of the male sex. 

 The blubber was firm in its texture, and not unlike 

 pork fat, when softened by heat. It does not appear to 

 be so subject to putrescency as the blubber of the com- 

 mon whale. It filled seven large casks, but was not ex- 

 pected to yield much oil, compactness not being a 

 desirable quality in blubber. A soap-maker bought the 

 whole for about 1 5l. sterling.* 



The late John Hunter dissected one which was caught 

 on the Doggerbank : it was seventeen feet long.f 



Captain Scoresby does not consider the one described 

 by Mr. Neill to be a B. Rostrata, but rather a Balee- 

 noptera Jubartes, or to an undescribed species. 



Another caught in Scalpa Bay, in November, 1808, 

 was seventeen feet and a half long, circumference twenty. 

 Length from the snout to the dorsal fin, twelve feet and 

 a half; from the snout to the pectoral fin, five feet ; from 

 the same to the eye, three feet and a half; and from the 

 snout to the blow-holes, three feet. Pectoral fins, two feet 

 long, and seven inches broad ; dorsal fin, fifteen inches 

 long by nine inches high ; tail, fifteen inches long by 

 four feet and a half broad. Largest piece of baleen, 



* Fide Mr. P. Neill's paper in the " Memoirs of the Wernerian Society 

 of Edinburgh," vol. i. p. 201 — 6. 

 t PJiilos. Trans., vol. lxxvii. p. 448. 



