CETACEA. 21 
‘have the pectoral fin about { the length from the head, and from 
to +5; (probably as the immer or outer edge is measured) of the 
atire length of the body, in lengths, and the dorsal about 3 the 
‘entire length from the nose. It would appear as if the middle of 
the body lengthened more rapidly than the other parts as it grew, 
at least the young females are shorter in proportion; for Scores- 
by’s female, 17 feet 6 inches, Hunter’s, 17 feet, and one I mea- 
sured at Deptford, now im the British Museum, 14 feet long, have 
‘the pectoral rather less than j the entire length, and the dorsal 
and vent only about 2 of the entire length, from the chin, so that 
‘the interspace between the pectoral and dorsal must have doubled 
‘its length, while those fins retained their original situations with 
regard to the head and tail Zool. Erebus & Terror, 18. 
__ Messrs. Knox, having purchased a whale 84 feet long, which 
‘was stranded near North Berwick on the 5th of October 1831, 
and another 10 feet long, taken in the stake nets at Queensferry, 
Firth of Forth, in February 1834, they determined by anatomical 
differences that they were distinct species, in a “ Catalogue 
of Anatomical Preparations illustrative of the Whale, by F. J. 
Knox, Conservator of the Museum in Old Surgeons’ Hall,” 8vo, 
Edinburgh, 1838. They distmguished the former by the name 
of Balena maximus borealis, and the latter as Balena minimus 
borealis. As no description of the colour of the animal, or any 
account of the nuchal vertebre, is given, it is impossible, from 
their account, to determine the species of the former; but the 
Catalogue contains some most interesting particulars relative to 
the anatomy of these animals. 
_ Fortunately the skeleton of the larger whale was purchased by 
the Town Council of Edinburgh, and is now exhibited in the Zoolo- 
gical Gardens of that city, and, as far as it is possible to examine 
‘it at the height at which it is suspended, it 1s a Physalus; and 
the same as, or very nearly allied to, the species described in this 
work under the name of P. antiquorum. The B. minimus borealis 
appears to be a young specimen of the B. rostrata or Pike Whale 
of Hunter. Dr. Knox’s drawing of this specimen, as suspended, 
‘in the act of swimming, is represented in Jardine’s Naturalist’s 
Library. 
_ This was the first time that the Northern Finners had been 
Separated on an actual examination and comparison of specimens. 
But the pamphlet in which these observations were published 
being a mere guide to the exhibition, has been overlooked, and I 
could only procure a copy last year after great trouble, and from 
the family of the authors. 
| Professor Eschricht of Copenhagen, who has devoted much 
time to the study of the anatomy and development of the North- 
ern Finners, and has published several papers in the Danish lan- 
oe aber 
2 apes 
TaN 
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