52 OCCURRENCE OF THE SKELETON OF THE 



into the place where its bones were found, and that its death 

 was hastened, if not by wounds (for there were strong traces of 

 vigorous choj)pings of old date on the right upper maxilla), at 

 least by the filthy impurities of the river. The "haul of old 

 bones" were being rapidly dispersed or broken up, so that there 

 was no hope of collecting them for articulation ; they would soon 

 be converted into "superphosphate," and the solid frame-work 

 of the whale, which for years had battled with the strong Arctic 

 Seas, would in the course of a few months assist in the fertiliza- 

 tion of our fields, and thus, it is to be hoped, relieve some future 

 Geologist from the possibility of the mistake that the Hype- 

 roodon was once a denizen of the Tyne, and afforded magnificent 

 fishing to the Newcastle apprentices. 



It may be noted that the Bottle-noses have a general resem- 

 blance of form to the Dolphins, but are from 20 to 25 ft. or 

 more in length, and 15 ft. in circumference. Body, brown above, 

 whitish below ; some are spotted. They have two conical teeth 

 at the extremity of the lower jaw, but the entire circumference 

 of the upper jaw and the surface of the palate are furnished 

 with small, sharp, unequal teeth of very considerable hardness, 

 (" Cuvier's Animal Kingdom," by Griffiths). From this very 

 singular peculiarity of dentition, the family, of which there is 

 only one species, has received the name of Hyperoodon — vTn^aay, 

 palate, and o^ovg, tooth. Of their food, books tell us nothing; 

 Mr. Palmer says they feed on a kind of small shrimp. They are 

 said to occur in the Channel, the North Sea, the North Atlantic, 

 and the Arctic Seas. 



About five years ago the right half of the skull of another 

 Cetacean was extracted from the bed of the river, close to the 

 chemical works of Messrs Gray & Crow at Friars Goose. It was 

 presented to the College of Practical Science by Mr. A. G. Gray, 

 and on the transference of the Museum of that College to the 

 building of the Newcastle College of Medicine in the Autumn 

 of 1857, it accompanied the other specimens. 



It corresponds closely in profile and in the relative an-ange- 

 mcnts of the Cranial bones, with the plate of the skull oi Delphi- 



