206 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vi. 



formed that it was the calf that had been found. It turned out 

 to be an aged male, apparently of the species Balcena Mysticetus. 

 I measured it as carefully as I could, and satisfied myself that it 

 was sixty-Jive feet in length. The back was black, the belly fur- 

 rowed, presenting exactly the appearance of a clinker-built boat, 

 and each furrow alternately black and dingy white. The baleeas 

 of one side had been lost by being caught on the rocks while it 

 was being hauled ashore, but the other though it had been re- 

 moved from the jaw, was quite perfect, till the visitors began to 

 appropriate its plates. With the permission of Mr. Gregory I 

 secured a few plates. I never had an opportunity of seeing so 

 large a whale before, though I saw the skeleton of the whale 

 stranded on the beach of Portobello, near Edinburgh, in 1829, 

 and purchased by Dr. Knox. I concluded after a careful exami- 

 nation that it answered fully the description given by De Kay, 

 as follows : 



Nat. Ord. Cetacea ; Genus Balcena ; Species, Balcena mysti- 

 cetus. Right or common whale. Characteristics, black, occasion- 

 ally varied with white or yellow. Gape of the mouth, arched, 

 with about 600 laminae of whalebone. Length, forty to sixty feet. 



Description : body thickest in the middle, a little behind the 

 fore paws; somewhat furrowed, tapering towards the tail. Head 

 large, somewhat triangular. Opening of the mouth large, with a 

 few scattering hairs on the end of the jaws. Eyes very small, 

 and placed near the corners of the mouth. External jaw ex- 

 ceedingly minute. Spiracles two, oblong, adjacent, slightly largish 

 in front. Palate and sides of upper jaw with two rows of whale- 

 bone from ten to thirteen feet long, and generally curved longi- 

 tudinally^ and giving an arched form to the roof of the mouth. 

 Each series consists of three hundred or more laminae of whale- 

 bone, the interior edges of which are covered with a hair-like 

 fringe. Swimming paws rounded, somewhat pointed, 7 — 9 feet 

 Ions: with a width of 4 — 5 feet, and situated about two feet be- 

 hind the angle of the mouth. Tail very broad, notched in the 

 centre, curved on the edges, and pointed at the tips. Colour : 

 blackish throughout, occasionally with a small space under the 

 body, and a larger space on the lower jaw, whitish grey or flesh 

 colour. Very old individuals become varied with white, black, or 

 piebald. Weight from 60 to 100 tons. It is presumed to have 

 a gestation of nine months, produces one at a birth, which it 

 suckles for about a year. It exhibits great maternal fondness, 



