450 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



course should cover well the barb of the hook. For carp weighing from 

 one to two pounds smaller hooks of the kind named would be better. I 

 wonder that more of our country people do not make ponds and raise 

 the German carp. Properly cooked, they are very fair eating ; but to 

 one who loves a good, square, long-winded, honest pull by a fish, I do 

 not know anything to equal them. If they are once hooked, one is sure 

 to get them, provided he knows how to handle a fish aud has good tackle. 

 Petersburg, Va., January 1, 1885. 



I59.-STBAIVDIPIIG OF A PIOI1IY SPERM-WHALE. 

 By J A Iff Eft R. HOBBS. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



Surfmau T. N. Sundlin found the fish, which came ashore 2£ miles 

 north of the station during a gale of wind and a high tide, which caused 

 it to be badly chafed. I sent three men with a horse and cart for it, 

 but they could not put it in the cart. It was 9 feet long. The men 

 pulled the fish upon the shore, and I had it covered with a light sail. 

 On Sunday the gale abated, and I succeeded in carrying home the fish, 

 which I identified as a pigmy sperm-whale. While the whale was on 

 the beach the sail blew from off its head, and the birds picked out one of 

 its eyes. The gale had injured the boat that runs here, so I boxed up 

 the whale and in a small boat carried it a distance of five miles to a fish- 

 boat and shipped it to Elizabeth City, K C. Like all other fish of its 

 kind, handling causes the skin to peel off. 



Kitty Hawk Life- Saving Station, 



Sixth District, North Carolina, January 1, 1885. 



REPLY BY PROFESSOR BAIRD. 



I have great pleasure in acknowledging the receipt yesterday of the 

 specimen, the strandiug of which you telegraphed me on December 26. 

 I was much gratified to find it a specimen of the very rare pigmy sperm- 

 whale [Kogia). The localities which this whale has been previously 

 known to inhabit are the Gulf of California and the waters about 

 Australia. 



The specimen sent us by the life-saving service of Port Monmouth, 

 N. J., a year ago, was the first ever known to occur in the Atlantic 

 Ocean. Your specimen is the second, and fortunately is of a different 

 sex — a male, which gives to us a complete history of the species. The 

 animal you send is full-grown, and represents a group of pigmy sperm- 

 whales, all of which are very rare. 



Washington, J). C, January (J, 1885. 



