The Whale.-\ OF ORKNEY. 159 



of the fins, and the account I got of it did not contradict the 

 opinion. The mouth was large, or, as they expressed it, so 

 wide that a man might have entered it on horsebacli ; the 

 hps very thick ; a fin on the back ; and whalebone in its 

 mouth. The dimensions were forgot, but it was a very large 

 fish. I saw one since in Flotta, fifty feet long. 



The length of this species is sometimes very great : One 

 taken at Abercorn Castle was seventy-eight feet long, the cir- 

 cumference thirty-five ; the tongue fifteen feet and a half long ; 

 mouth furnished with whalebone, three feet long ; the forehead 

 furnished with two spout-holes of a pyramidal form. 



The eyes were thirteen feet from the end of the nose ; the 

 pectoral fins ten feet long ; the back fin about three feet high, 

 placed near the tail, which was eighteen feet broad ; belly full 

 of folds. 



Species 3. — The Beaked Whale. 



Bottle-head or Flounders-head, Auglis. Brit. Zool. 43. Ore. Bottle-nose. 



BoTTLE-NOSE Wh ALES somctimcs run ashore in great num- 

 bers with us, two hundred at a time, of diflferent sizes, from 

 eighteen to ten feet. I never had the good fortune to see 

 these in such numbers, or on shore, as none of them have been 

 got in Orkney these seven years. I have often observed them 

 in small numbers oft" the Black-Craig of Stronmess, and with- 

 in the sounds single fish. One was got some years ago near 



