40 MEMOIR OF JOHN BARCLAY. 



such truly wonderful effects on the senses, the 

 judgment, the imagination, and veracity of these 

 Orcadians, as to have made their solemn declar- 

 ations so widely different from nature and from truth. 

 If these odd effects, on the minds of the Orcadians, 

 could have proceeded from nothing else than the 

 sight of a Squalus, or a Squalus maximus, Mr. Home 

 is certainly entitled to the credit of having discovered, 

 if not a new species of fish, at least a new and re- 

 markable variety of the human species inhabiting the 

 Orkneys." 



Not long after, another tenant of the vasty deep 

 was stranded near Newhaven. It was the Beluga 

 Delphinus Albicans ; and here Barclay was so for- 

 tunate as to be able to obtain its dissection. 



Again, in June 1815, a Beluga was killed near 

 Stirling, and Mr. Bald having procured the specimen, 

 it was submitted to Mr. now Dr. Neill and Dr. Bar- 

 clay for inspection, who inserted an account of it in 

 the Wernerian Society Memoirs, vol iii. p. 471 , the 

 former giving an account of its external characters, 

 and the latter of its structure. Its length was 13^ 

 feet, its greatest circumference 8 feet 1 1 inches. 



But his labours were now approaching to a close. 

 In 1824, while on a visit to an intimate friend, Mr. 

 Charles Oliphant, W.S., he sustained a slight paralytic 

 shock, and his speech became somewhat affected. 

 From this period he gradually declined, and at length 

 sunk under prolonged exhaustion on the 21st August 

 1826. His remains were interred at Restalrig, near 

 Edinburgh, the family burying-ground of his father- 



