IN THE THAMES AT NORTH WOOLWICH. 



igi 



the Woolwich whale. I only saw one of the young ones, which 

 was a Balampteva. From the description given me of the size of 

 the old one, I judged the species to be B. musculus.'" In a com- 

 munication to Nature Mr. Lydekker states that the young one 

 differed from the adult in that the under surface of the body was 

 flesh-coloured instead of white. This whale, the Rorqual or 

 " Finner Whale" has been several times stranded in the 

 estuaries of the Thames, and two instances of its appearance in 

 the Crouch River are recorded in the Essex Naturalist (vol. v. 

 pp. 124 and 134). rhe first specimen was very carefully described 

 and well figured by Mr. W. Crouch in our journal, and the 

 d awing is repeated in Dr. Laver's Mammals, S^c, of Essex. 



Whale Stranded at North Woolwich, November 27th, 1S99. 

 We are indebted to the kindness of Mr. W. Harris, Contractor, 

 of North Woolwich, for two photographs, one of which is here 

 reproduced. It unfortunately does not show the poor Cetacean 

 very clearly, but will serve to give a vivid idea of the size of an 

 animal which is probably the largest living creature. We have 

 not heard what has become of the Woolwich calf, but the 

 mother was towed out to sea by the sanitary authorities. It will 

 be remembered that there is a life size half-model of Balanoptera 

 musmiUis in the Whale-room at the British Museum of Natural 

 History, together with a like representation of the Tilbury 

 specimen of the allied species, Rudolphi's Rorqual, B. bonalis 

 (see E.N., vol. ii., pp. 41-46). 



