A WHALE AT MERSEA IN I299. 149 



. . . . may be due to the interaction of sulphuric acid and 

 lime in the surface soil " are very convincing. 



If the boulder-clay is pervious to rainwater (which I assumed 

 on agricultural grounds, and because the clay of the chalky 

 deposites is granular and not colloidal), any sulphate of lime 

 would be dissolved away, and no accumulations would be 

 expected. I think Mr. Dalton is mistaken in supposing that 

 rainwater owes the whole of its sulphuric acid to the combustion 

 of carbonaceous fuels, though it undoubtedly owes most. Nor 

 can I agree that a London Clay soil requires lime-dressing mainly 

 because of the production of sulphuric acid from pyrites ; the 

 de-calcified Boulder-clay requires lime-dressing just as much. 



The subject, which is one of great practical importance is 

 more fully discussed in the May number of the Journal of 

 Agricultural Science (1905, page 217). 



T. S. Dymond. 



A WHALE AT MERSEY IN 1299. 



By J. E. HARTING, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



THE extract from the Wardrobe Accounts of King Edward I. 

 quoted by Mr. Miller Christy in the last number of the 

 Essex Naturalist (ante p. 135), having reference to the 

 occurrence of a supposed whale at Mersea in 1299, is of much 

 interest and suggests a little criticism. For two reasons it 

 appears to me doubtful whether the Latin word balena (or balcrna) 

 is in this case rightly applied to a whale. The entry in the 

 accounts referred to includes a charge for supplying an empty 

 cask for the purpose of transporting the creature to Stanford, 

 from which we are to infer either that the animal, if a whale, 

 was a very young one, or that the cask was a very large one. 

 Again the name balcrna (qAXaivn), as I shall presently show, 

 was formerly sometimes applied to the porpoise. It will be of 

 interest to look at some of the earliest applications of the word, 

 which, almost needless to say, are to be found under the head of 

 " Fishes." 



In the Colloquy of Archbishop Alfric, of the 10th century, com- 

 posed with the object of teaching the Anglo-Saxon scholars 

 Latin (Mus. Brit. Bibl. Cotton Tiberius, A. iii.) there is an 

 amusing dialogue with a fisherman in which the A.S. hwcel 

 is rendered in Latin cetus and balana, both these words 



