266 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
to Blyth’s remarks. Of the whale stranded on the Arakan coast a few 
bones were sent to the Society’s Museum in Calcutta ; they consisted 
of the two rami of the lower jaw, measuring 20 feet ro inches, a right 
rib, the left radius, and five vertebrae, which are now to be seen at the 
Indian Museum. He writes as follows on them: “ The proportional 
length of the radius indicates the animal to have been a Baleenoptera 
or rorqual, while the remarkable slenderness of the lower jaw suffices 
to prove it a distinct species from any hitherto-described rorqual.” 
The finback does not confine itself entirely, or even chiefly, as 
stated by Blyth, to a diet of Cephalapoda, but is a fish-eater to boot, 
doing great damage to shoals of such fish as cod, herrings, &c., as 
many as six to eight hundred fish having been found in the stomach 
of one. 
They are not particularly shy, and will sometimes follow a vessel 
closely for days. I read not very long ago an account in one of the 
Indian newspapers of a steamer running over one of these animals, and 
nearly cutting it in two ; the agony of the poor brute as he struggled in 
the water, vainly trying to sound, was graphically described. A similar 
adventure occurred some years ago to the B.ILS.N. Company’s 
steamer Luphrates, on a voyage from Kurrachee to Bombay, when 
about sixty miles from the latter place. The captain writes: “It 
appears that the animal had for about half an hour amused itself by 
crossing and recrossing the bow, and then at last suddenly turned and 
came straight for the vessel, striking us about ten feet from the stem. 
{t struck with such force as to send a considerable quantity of spray 
on deck. ‘The only other instance that has occurred here lately was 
in the case of the S.S. Dadhousie, when about twelve miles from 
Kurrachee ; it was in September of last year, and the Bombay papers 
had a full account of it at the time.” I am indebted to my friend 
Mr. M. C. Turner for this and some other interesting letters on this 
subject. Captain A. Stiffe, of the late Indian Navy, writes. regarding 
the drowning of a whale by entanglement with a submarine cable, off 
the coast of Mekran: ‘The telegraph cable was broken, and a dead 
whale hove up to the surface, with three turns of cable round the neck 
of his tail, by which he was drowned. I had the three turns in my 
office at Kurrachee, and there they are now I dare say. I don’t 
remember any more details. There are always shoals of whales about 
that part, and it is supposed a ‘ bight’ of the cable lying off the ground 
got wound up like a rope round a screw.” I myself was in a sailing 
vessel going about five or six knots, when a whale played about for a 
time, and then rose and spouted just under the bow, covering the 
forecastle with spray. The captain, who was standing by me, quite 
expected a shock, and exclaimed—“ Look out! hold on!” 
