THE ORDER CETACEA. Ill 



to be either a rdrqual or the tinner of the whalers : the 

 latter is the pike-headed whale of Pennant. Various 

 reasons decided it to belong to the former species ; but 

 every work by professed naturalists exhibited contrary 

 opinions. Even the illustrious Cuvier himself was in 

 error, inasmuch as he states that all cetacea with folds 

 belong to one and the same species ; whereas, according 

 to Count La Cepede, the dorsal fin proved it to belong to 

 the second class of the whale genus, which he has named 

 Balaendptera. 



Towards the end of November, 1827, M. Kessels 

 went to Paris, where he consulted Baron Cuvier, and 

 returned with Messrs. Dubar and Paret, the latter an 

 eminent amateur naturalist, on the 20th of December. 

 They had exhibited to this zoologist the whole of the 

 drawings which had been taken of the animal ; and he 

 informed them that the Baleenoptera Rorqual and the 

 Balaendptera Jubartes, which La Cepede and other na- 

 turalists had described as two species, were only one 

 and the same, as their distinguishing characters were 

 so trifling that they might be easily confounded with 

 each other. However, Dr. Dubar, notwithstanding this 

 opinion, very properly determined on considering it a 

 Rorqual in the pamphlet which he published on this sub- 

 ject. To whatever species the individual specimen in 

 question belongs, it is doubtless the largest animal that 

 has ever been captured, and I do not hesitate to say that 

 the skeleton is the most perfect in Europe. 



The following measurements will give the reader some 

 idea of the bulk of this animal : — 



Total length of animal, 95 feet; breadth, 18 feet. 

 Length of the head, 22 feet ; length of the lower jaw- 

 bones each, 22 feet ; height of the skull, 4| feet. Length 



of the spine, 69 k feet; number of bones composing it, 



