Hyperoodon Butzkopf in Belfast Bay. 151 



Without loss of time a boat was manned by four or five of the 

 Coast Guard armed with harpoon^ cutlass, carbine and hatchet, 

 resolved to make the stranger pay dearly for his visit. * * * 

 After a good deal of manoeuvring the men succeeded in bringing 

 their boat alongside the enemy, and then commenced their as- 

 sault upon him without mercy * * * and after a little show of 

 opposition he attempted to make off, but his endeavours were 

 fruitless. After receiving two or three shots, and a good many 

 strokes with the harpoon, a grappling-iron was thrown over him 

 and the boat was rowed shorewards amid the huzzas of the spec- 

 tators, with the poor whale vanquished and weltering in his blood, 

 which dyed the waters, and soon the retreating tide left him high 

 and dry upon the beach. * * * It exhibited great tenacity of 

 life, having survived six hours after being brought to land, though 

 cut and hacked in an extreme degree. * * * On Wednesday 

 and yesterday crowds of persons flocked from this town and 

 other places to see it where it lies on the shore at Cultra.^^ 



I was absent from home at the time, but my friend Mr. James 

 Bryce, F.G.S., ever active and energetic, hastened to the beach 

 where the animal was lying, took the measurements of it in de- 

 tail, and subsequently repeated them under more favourable cir- 

 cumstances in the yard in the town of Belfast, to which the ani- 

 mal was brought for exhibition, and where it attracted a large 

 number of visitors for several days. Mr. Bryce had at this time 

 careful drawings made of the Hyperoodon by his relative Mr. B. 

 Young, which, together with his own notes, have been kindly 

 placed in my hands. I happened to return home just in time to 

 see the animal before it was cut up on the 8th of November. 

 It is a male. Mr. Bryce's description is as follows : — 



ft. in. 



" Length, measured in a straight line from snout to tail 20 4 



, measured along the dorsal curve 23 4 



Height, greatest ...< 4 6 



Girth, greatest 11 6 



Breadth of forehead 3 



Length of rostrum or snout 11 



of mouth to rictus 1 7 



Depth of each jaw at point * 4 



Eye from point of snout 3 1 



Blow-hole from point of snout (following dorsal profile) 3 9 



•, in length (slightly crescentic points directed towards \ n f 



the head : it and the eyes in the same vertical plane) / 



Pectoral fins from hase of snout 5 



• fins, space hetween them 1 7 



fins in length, from base at upper side to point 2 2 



finsin breadth 7 



Dorsal fin distant from caudal fin, estimated from a straight line \ r, « 



drawn from snout to tail j o 



Dorsal fin, length at base 1 7 



fin in height (points backward) 1 



