130 



NOTES ON TASMANIAN WHALING. 



By W. Lodewyk Crowther, D.S.O., M.B. 



(Head 10th November, 1919. MSS. in full received 

 24th December, 1919.) 



PRELIMINARY. 



During the last twelve months three veiy interesting 

 communications by Messrs. Scott and Lord have been read 

 before the Society. 



These were entitled "Studies of Tasmanian Cetacea," 

 and described particularly, some skeletons preserved in the 

 Tasmanian Mviseum, which had been overlooked for nearly 

 half a century. 

 » 



Certain of these remains had been presented to the 

 Museum by my grandfather (the late Hon. Dr. W. L. 

 Orov.-ther) about 1866-1871, when he was collecting ajid 

 foi"warding such skeletons both to the British Museum 

 and that of the Royal College of Surgeons, England. 



In view of the scientific value of the work thus accom- 

 plished by him, I trust I may be pardoned for adding a 

 brief account of his life work, before I pass to the con- 

 sideration of Whaling proper. 



Born in 1817, he an'ived in Hobart with his father, 

 William Crowther, M.R.C.S., by the ship "Cumberland" 

 in 1824. His education took place at Norfo'k Plains 

 (Longford), which meant walking o'^erland to school and 

 returning in the- same way to Hobart Town for his holi- 

 days. As a boy he was a very keen naturalist, and on 

 one of these trips between school and home he shot a 

 Tasmanian emu, which, he informed my father, was the 

 only specimen of the same he had ever seen, and which I 

 understand was one of the last remaining in V.D.L. By 

 trapping and shooting he got together a very fine collection 

 of skins of the Fauna of Tasmania, and these, with a large 

 number of live animals and birds, he took with him to 

 England by the ship "Emu" in 1839. On arrival, the 

 collection was pm-chased by Lord Derby for the Zoological 

 Society, and the proceeds of the sale gave my grandfather 

 his medical education at St. Thomas' Hospital. 



