136 CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 



the animal manages to feed itself under these conditions is a 

 mystery. 



It is remarkable that the main mass of each tusk is made up 

 of what appears as an abnormal growth of the fang.* The 

 actual conical tooth, that is the original small cap of dentine of 

 the tooth of the young animal, which corresponds to the part 

 of the tooth showing above the gum in other whales, does not 

 increase at all in size, but is carried up by the growth of the 

 fansjs, and remains at the tips of the tusks as a sort of wart-like 

 rudimentary excrescence. 



Specimens of Mesoplodofi Layardii are excessively rare ; I 

 soui^ht diligently for some during the whole of my stay at the 

 Cape, and was rewarded by procuring parts of two skulls. 

 One of these, a skull without the lower jaw, I found near Mr. 

 McKellar's, at Cape Point. The skull was exposed on the 

 beach, being stuck up with its beak thrust into the sand to be 

 used as a rifle target. 



The animal, as Mr. McKellar told me, had come on shore 

 about eight years before. It yielded oil of a very superior 

 quality, which sold for more than twice the price of ordinary 

 whale oil. It was about 10 feet in length, and was, as far as 

 he remembered, coloured black on the back and white on the 

 belly, with a conspicuous line of demarcation of the colours on 

 the side. The beast had the usual tusks. 



The other specimen consisted of the snout and lower jaw, 

 with the tusks of another example of the species. It was given 

 me by Mr. A. M. Black, of Simons Town. The animal came 

 on shore at Walwick Bay in 1869. It yielded 80 gallons of 

 oil, and was from 16 to 18 feet in length. It is remarkable 

 that these whales seem never to be met with or caught at sea. 

 They always are procured by their running on shore. The 

 Ziphioids are especially interesting, because many species were 

 abundant in Tertiary times, and their beaks being so dense in 

 structure as to be readily preserved as fossils, are common in 

 such deposits as the Red Crag of Suffolk. I had the good luck 

 to procure another Ziphioid at the Falkland Islands during the 

 voyage, near Port Darwin. 



I stayed at the hotel at Wynberg for a fortnight, whilst 

 working at the anatomy and development of Peripatus capcnsis. 



* Prof. Owen, with the single original specimen only before him, 

 considered that the tusks had acquired "an abnormal direction and state 

 of growth " in that particular specimen. " Palaeontographical Soc," Vol. 

 XXIII., 1869. p. 26. Prof. Flower, though knowing of a second specimen, 

 still seems doubtful. "Trans. Zool. Soc," Vol. VIII., 1874, p. 211. Now 

 that more specimens are known, there can be no longer doubt as to the 

 normal occurrence of the condition described. 



