] 40 GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL. 



former, could not be beheld without exciting the 

 liveliest astonishment. It was a female. 



And as animals of these gigantic dimensions are 

 sometimes cast ashore in our day, so were they 

 many centuries ago in other countries, and probably 

 of other genera. A curious notice is made on this 

 point, at a very early date in the records of history. 

 Nearchus, general to Alexander the Great, under- 

 took, as is well kno^vn, a voyage from the mouth 

 of the Indus to the Persian Gulf in the year 327 

 before the common era. In this perilous voyage 

 Nearchus coasted along the country of the Ichthyo- 

 pagi, considered by Ptolemy as a part of Karmania. 

 In his narrative we are informed that these people 

 live generally in small cabins, the better sort only 

 having houses, which are constructed of the bones 

 of whales thrown upon the coast. When the flesh 

 is rotted oflP they make planks and doors of such as 

 are flat, and beams and rafters of the ribs and jaw- 

 bones; and many of the monsters, it is said, are 

 found a hundred and fifty feet in length. Strabo 

 confirms this statement of Arrian. (Vincent's 

 Nearchus. — Kerrs Voyages^ xviii. 71-) 



"Wg cannot dismiss this short notice respecting 

 the stranding of the Cetae, and be it remarked they 

 are not always of the size indicated in the table, 

 without stating that the circumstance may always be 



