The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District. 155 
eighteen gallons of very inferior oil. In Bell’s reference to 
this specimen (“British Quadrupeds,” 2nd ed., p. 394) there 
are two mistakes, namely, that it was cast ashore near New- 
castle, and was 26 feet long. 
Notices of the “Tay Whale” appeared in most of the 
newspapers at the time, the best account perhaps being that 
in the Weekly Scotsman of 5th January 1884. Subsequently, 
in 1888 and 1889, a very elaborate account of it by Professor 
Struthers was published in the Jowrnal of Anatomy and 
Physiology (vols. xxii. and xxiii.). It was a male 40 feet 
in length, with pectoral fins 12 feet long, and was believed 
to have been attracted to the Tay by the abundance of young 
herring then in the firth. Some idea of its greath strength 
and endurance may be formed from the following facts :— 
After several fruitless attempts, the animal was at length 
successfully harpooned on 3lst December (1883)—two, and 
finally three harpoons being shot into it. Large iron bolts, 
&c., were also fired into it, and hand-lances were driven three 
feet deep in its back. At first two six-oared rowing boats 
and a steam launch were made fast to it, and four or five 
hours afterwards a steam tug was added. With this heavy 
drag it swam wildly about the firth for a time, and then took 
out to sea, pulling all but the launch after it. For some time 
it pursued a northerly course till off Montrose, when it turned 
and proceeded towards the Bell Rock, then towards the mouth 
of the Firth of Forth, and finally turned north again when 
six or seven miles off the Carr Rock. One by one the harpoon 
lines had parted, and during the morning of 1st January, 
when some way south of the Bell Rock, the last line parted, 
and the Whale was again free, after being “ fast” for nearly 
twenty-two hours to a dead weight of between twenty and 
thirty tons, which it was computed it had towed between 
forty and fifty miles. Of course it was wounded beyond the 
possibility of recovery. For the time being, however, it made 
its escape, and was not seen again for a week, when some 
fishermen observed the carcase floating off Bervie, and on 8th 
January towed it into Stonehaven harbour, where it was sold 
for £226 to Mr Woods, Dundee, who had it embalmed, and 
for the next seven months it was on exhibition in various 
