XV. An Account of a Whale of the Spermaceti Tribe, 
cast on shore on the Yorkshire Coast, on the 
28th of April, 1825. 
By JAMES ALDERSON, B.A. 
FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND OF THE 
CAMBRIDGE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
[Read May 16, 1825.] 
So little is still known with respect to the natural history and 
anatomy of whales, that any opportunity of contributing a few 
facts to the information already ascertained, is extremely desirable. 
It is this which has induced me to communicate what I have 
seen. 
The subject of the following remarks was seen on the after- 
noon of Thursday the 28th of April, drifting up from the southward 
with the ebb tide, off Tunstall in Holderness, and in the course 
ef the afternoon was landed low in the tide. At the ensuing 
flood it was floated higher up on the beach, where it was left 
during the early part of the ebb. It may seem extraordinary, 
but it is no less true, that it was not generally known in Hull to 
be on shore until the Tuesday following. Nothing can be more 
contrasted than the view of the animal perfect, and its skeleton. 
The enormous and preposterous mass of matter upon its cheeks 
and jowl bearing no proportion to that of any other animal what- 
ever, when compared with the bones of the head 
KK 2 
