BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 413 



removed. I was unwilling to think that the fish was irrevocably lost, 

 and again questioned him. He evidently perceived that I was in doubt, 

 and added that two of his men had seen the fish shortly after it had 

 been killed, and returning to the station described it, and the pecu- 

 liarity of its head. One of the crew who had not seen the fish, an old 

 whaleman, said he thought it must be a young sperm whale. 



I regarded this loss as a serious misfortune, for, from all accounts, it was 

 evidently the same species that was found at North Dennis and New- 

 port, which I believe is Hyperoodon bidens. 



The captain says that he has not known it to blow so heavy on that 

 coast for ten years, and this may explain its presence on the beach, as 

 well as its sudden disappearance, and it stands to reason, according to 

 the theories of the fishermen, that it should, in an ordinary gale, either 

 be washed upon the beach beyond the surf, or " work to the nor'ward," 

 as did the cranium. 



The cetacean evidently ventured too near the coast, and getting 

 caught in the surf was "pitch-poled" (turned end over end) ashoie, and 

 becoming blinded and smothered in the sand and "trash" stirred up by 

 the surf, was thrown helplessly upon the beach. 



Black Manuel, a resident Portuguese fisherman, saw it struggling in 

 the surf, and, with the assistance of five or six other men, caught hpld 

 of the fish while it was "fluking it lively," endeavoring to regain its 

 native element. The men had all they could do to hold the fish until 

 they finally succeeded in killing it with jack-knives. Having stripped 

 off the blubber, Black Manuel detached the lower jaw, which is hope- 

 lessly gone. He then "cooked" it with the blubber and cut off some 

 of the "lean" (flesh) to feed to his chickens. To this last operation 

 Mr. Cook attributes the loss of the remains, as he says "when the lean 

 was cut off, holes were made in the bilge (side) of the fish through which 

 the water entered and worked the carcass to pieces." It is possible 

 that some fragmentary remains may be found to the north of the place 

 where the cranium now lies. 



Mr. Cook made 12 gallons of oil from the blubber and lower jaw, and 

 I am of the opinion that something definite may be determined in regard 

 to the species by the gravity of the oil The oil of a sperm whale 

 grampus should have the same weight as that of the sperm whale. I am 

 going to Mr. Cook's factory to-morrow to test the oil, and will send you 

 a small bottle of the same. 



Not being able to bring the cranium to Provincetown on horseback, 

 and as our horses were pretty well tired out, and feeling satisfied that 

 we could give Captain Atwood more definite information for his plans 

 for to-morrow, we returned home. I immediately called on Captain At- 

 wood, and requested him to have it brought in, if in his opinion it was 

 worth preserving. We will go to-morrow to the point where his inform- 

 ant told him the fish came ashore, which is near Station No. 7, to the 

 north of Highland light, and see the keeper. Captain Fisher, who, ac- 



