38 



thumb extremity of the right pectoral fin, the fore part of the 

 top of the head, with the gums, and part of the under jaw with 

 the teeth and lip attached. These parts are all much torn, 

 but such as they were found they are preserved in the 

 Museum, and they will serve to give us some idea of the 

 external appearance of the animal. 



Though a whale of the sperm family, with a short and very 

 broad head, it was in appearance a dolphin, about nine feet 

 long. Like a dolphin, it had a low snout, and rising from it 

 a convex forehead, at the base of which was the large single 

 blow hole placed at about the middle of the head.* The 

 snout was turned up with a margin somewhat like that of a pig. 

 In the gums of the roof of the mouth there was on each side a 

 series of sockets for receiving the teeth of the under jaw ; these 

 teeth were hollow, conical, and inserted somewhat horizon- 

 tally in the sides of a very thin, narrow, sub-cylindrical under 

 jaw. They were slightly curved upwards, so that their points 

 should enter into the abovementioned alveoles of the upper 

 jaw. The eye was situated low, in front of a very weak 

 pectoral fin. There was a triangular dorsal fin like that of a 

 dolphin, the rather convex front edge of it being inclined 

 backwards at an angle of about 45 ° . The hinder edge of it was 

 more perpendicular and concave. The perpendicular height 

 of the point of this dorsal fin from the back was about 3 J inches, 

 and its base 6 inches wide. The caudal fin was triangular, 

 with the terminating edge sinuated from each sharp point to 

 the middle, where there was an emargination small but deep. 

 Its breadth at the terminating edge in a straight line was two 

 feet, and the length from the medial emargination that divided 

 the flukes to the neck of the tail was about one foot. Such is 

 all that I can say on the subject of the outward aspect, but the 

 manner in which the points of the teeth are worn show this 

 whale to have been a full-grown animal. 



By repeated visits to Maroobrah Beach, by diligent search, 



* As far as I can judge, this aperture appears to have been somewhat of a 

 circular form, or it may have been lunate, with the horns of the lune directed 

 forwards towards the point of the snout. 



