198 Natural History in the English Counties. 



but I have already trespassed too long on your valuable pages, and shall, 

 therefore, merely observe in contlusion, that the plates and descriptions, by 

 Bewick and others, are, as far as I could judge from a short but minute 

 inspection, perfectly correct. I am. Sir, &c. — Perceval Hunter. King- 

 stone Rectory i near Canterbury y Feb. 19. 1829. 



Capture of a Cachalot on the south Coast. — On the 1 5th of February a 

 fine spermaceti whale was captured at Whitstable ; and such an occurrence 

 being very rare on our coasts, at your request I proceed to state the in- 

 formation respecting it which I have been able to collect j truly regretting, 

 from the imperfect knowledge of these giants of the waters possessed by 

 our naturalists, that none appear to have been able to avail themselves of 

 so excellent an opportunity of removing the many doubts and difficulties 

 respecting the external figure and anatomy of the animal. 



The only detailed account of its capture which has been presented to 

 the public has been given in the Essex Herald, and that is in some par- 

 ticulars at variance with others, derived from persons' who profess to have 

 been eye-witnesses. 



According to the first authority, the whale was seen approaching some 

 dredging boats in comparatively shallow water, and the fishermen instantly 

 went in pursuit. Being unprovided with weapons, they threw their anchors 

 on him; and the crew of one boat, of 11 tons' burthen, had the temerity to 

 sail over him ; upon which he rose and lifted it above the surface. In this 

 strange warfare fortunately no injury was sustained, except by the whale, 

 whose back retained the traces of the vessel's passage. The fishermen for a 

 long time persevered, and at length harassed him so much that he was 

 driven into shallow water, on the Grass Bank, upon which he threw him- 

 self on his back; in which position he continued to bellow loudly until he 

 expired. With the night tide he was floated by a warp upon the rock. 



A Whitstable boatman at Billingsgate has communicated to me the fol- 

 lowing additional and rather varying particulars : — The whale was first 

 observed in shallow water (on the Uth) off the Essex coast. He was im- 

 mediately attacked by two boats, the men in which trying to kill or disable 

 him, commenced by destroying his sight, and also thrust a sharp bar of 

 wood into the abdomen, which, by the agonised efforts of the animal, was 

 instantly and forcibly ejected, followed by a large quantity of blood. They 

 then attempted to secure him by two very strong cables, and with another 

 fastened a small anchor to his tail. The cables were speedily snapped, and 

 the leviathan broke from his pursuers, but only to meet a more certain fate 

 on the opposite shore. The Whitstable men were more fortunate, the 

 whale becoming stranded upon their coast, and assisting to destroy himself 

 by his tremendous efforts to escape into his native element from the inces- 

 sant persecutions of his new enemies, who endeavoured to kill him by 

 wounds in every accessible part of his body. The noise of his floundering 

 upon the shingles was compared by our informant to that of all his bones 

 being broken, which, added to his bellowing, was as terrible to the ear as 

 the sight of so vast an animal, exerting his utmost power in a struggle for 

 existence, was to the eye. It was the opinion of this person that he ulti- 

 mately died from the exhaustion occasioned by his unavailing efforts. The 

 first intention of the captors was merely to disable him, and tow him up 

 alive to London, where they would doubtless have reaped from his ex- 

 hibition a rich reward for their perilous exertions. 



Mr. Gould, who went to Whitstable some days after the death to secure 

 and prepare the skeleton for the Zoological Society, has kindly favoured me 

 with all the information he was able to procure on the spot. He was 

 informed that the whale was left by the tide in only 8 ft. of water on the 

 Essex coast, in which situation he was seen by the master of a French ship, 

 who immediately put off to attack him. He was then so much exhausted 

 by beating about in shallow water, as quietly to suffer a small cable to be 



