224: REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4j 



These results show that the closest similarity exists between genuine sperm-eil and 

 the oil from the Bottle-nosed Whale. They are peculiar among fish oils for their 

 low density and viscosity, and are distinguished from all other oils by their chemical 

 composition, which is more allied to that of spermaceti and the waxes than to ordi- 

 nary oils. 



When properly refined, I have no doubt the oil from the Bottled-nosed Whale will 

 be found suitable for all the applications of sperm oil, and for some pxirposes it could 

 be used in the raw state. I see no reason why it should be considered in any way 

 inferior to sperm oil. 



ALFRED H. ALLEN, F. I. C, F. C. S., 

 Lecture on Chemisinj at Sheffield School, Medicine, ^r.. 

 Public Analysis for the West Biding of Yorkshire, ^c. 



In form this species is even more singular than the Sperm Whale. 

 Until described by Capt. David Gray, the adult male was absolutely 

 unknown in the flesh and so different in form and proportion was its 

 skull from that of the well-known female and young male of the same 

 species that from the evidence of the skull aloue Dr. J. E. Gray was led to 

 establish not only a new species, but also a distinct genus, {Lagenocetus 

 laterostris). In the flesh the head is abruptly truncated and almost 

 quadrangular in shape, having been not inaptly likened to the end of 

 ,a portmanteau with rounded angles. By the whalers they are appro- 

 priately known as " Flat-heads." From the head to the dorsal fin, which 

 is situated about two-thirds of the distance from the head, the body de- 

 creases very little in diameter, but the remaining third, rapidly dimin- 

 ishes in size until the tail is reached. The flukes of the caudal fin, 

 instead of having a medial notch, are entirely along the margin and 

 nearly straight. The front of the inferior surface of the head extends 

 beyond the junction of the the upper surface of the " beak " so as to 

 produce a hollow notch, like what is known as a "beetling" brow; 

 the flippers are small and placed just behind the eye. In the females 

 and young males the form is more slender and the head rounded ; the 

 latter, however, gradually assume the flattened form of head as they 

 approach maturity, but in the female no such change takes place. The 

 females as well as the young males are black, but with age the hue of 

 the males become lighter until in very old individuals it assumes a 

 yellowish tinge, the back and front of the head and neighborhood of 

 the eye being quite white. The belly is always grayish white. 



They are usually greatly infested with parasite, a sessile-eyed crusta- 

 cean belonging to the order AmpMpoda., known as Cyamus Thompsoni. Of 

 203 of these Cetaceans killed by Captain Gray in 1882 the proportions 

 of ages and sexes were as follows: old males, "flat-heads," 96} "cows," 

 56 ; and young males, 51. 



At the approach of winter the Bottle-noses retire from the Arctic 

 seas, and passing south resume their solitary wanderings. From the 

 fact of those which have occurred on the British coast having been in- 

 variably females and young males, it seems probable that the old males 

 adopt a difterent line of migration. 



