326 Prof. J. Reinhardt on the Fin- Whale 
siderable a height of this fin in such an exceedingly large whale 
is indeed surprising, and affords a useful mark of distinction 
between the “ Steypireydr”’ and certain other northern fin- 
whales, as will appear from the table below, showing the height 
of the dorsal fin in several of the latter :— 
In B. antiquorum, 3, 403', measured by Schlegel (1841), 12”* 
” 9 ? 374'; ” ” (1826), 107" 
* : 6, 58’ - J. Murie (1859), 143” 
i Mf 3, 402’ cs O. Sars (1865), 13” 
B. Duguidiit, 9,¢.48' »  R. Heddle (1856), 203” 
B. laticeps, Opal.” is Rudolphi (1819), 16” 
B. rostrata, @, 25’ aa eschanehityyce ies 143" 
But, on the other hand, there are also some species, and just 
those most resembling the “ Steypireyér” in colour, which 
have a similar low but elongated dorsal fin; and though per- 
haps, in some of these, differences may yet be found in the 
shape of the fin, they can scarcely be pointed out from the 
descriptions at hand. This uncommonly low dorsal fin is also 
placed unusually far backwards, viz. about the beginning 
of the last fourth of the body. ‘The pectoral fms seem to 
present nothing very remarkable in their shape; and their 
length is contained from seven times and one-fifth to seven 
times and two-thirds in the total length (measured along the 
curvature of the back). 
The information for which we are indebted to Mr. Hallas 
thus enables us to form an idea about the “ Steypirey8r”’ satis- 
factory in certain respects ; but, in the present state of our know- 
ledge of the northern fin-whales, it is not sufficient to show 
quite clearly whether this animal may be referred to any of 
the earlier observed species or not. It is true that two fin- 
whales are recorded in cetological literature to which our 
thoughts will be immediately directed by the description given 
above, viz. the Greenlandic ‘'Tunnolik,” briefly described 
by Eschricht and H. P. C. Méller{, and usually considered 
identical with the Ostend Whale, and the species recently de- 
scribed by Malm under the name of Balenoptera Caroline§. 
But these two whales seem to resemble each other, and either 
of them, again, the ‘‘ Steypireyér”’ so much, as far as the co- 
lour is concerned, that, even if it were quite certain that the 
* All the measurements of this table are in Danish feet and inches. 
+ I mention this whale here by the name under which it has been de- 
scribed, without expressing any opinion as to the validity of the species. 
{ K. D. Vidensk. Selsk. Skrifter, ser. 4. vol. xii. "pp. 375-880. 
§ Malm, A. W., Nagra Blad om Hvaldjur i allmanhet och Balenoptera 
Caroline i synnerhet. Goteborg, 1867, Monographie illustrée du Baleino- 
tere trouvé le 29 Oct. 1865 sur la edte occidentale de la Suéde. Stock- 
olm, 1867, 
