110 CETACEA 



estuary in October 1814 were referable to the present species, 

 but, as I have already shown (p. 108), Neill's description of 

 them, published in the " Scots Magazine " at the time, makes 

 it perfectly clear that they belonged to the last species. 

 From a statement in Don's list of Forfarshire animals 

 (Headrick's "Agriculture" of Angus, App., p. 39), it would 

 appear that true " Ca'ing " Whales were stranded up the 

 Firth of Tay prior to 1813. 



The "Zoologist" for 1856 (p. 5095) contains a description by 

 Dr J. Hardy of a male G. melas, measuring 20 feet in length 

 and 11 feet in greatest girth, which came ashore among the 

 rocks of Greenheugh, a short way to the west of St Helen's 

 church, Oldcambus, Berwickshire, on 29th March of that 

 year. At the same time another much smaller also came 

 ashore a few miles farther west in the vicinity of Thornton- 

 loch, in East Lothian. In April 1867 a herd, supposed to 

 consist of about two hundred animals, was observed in the 

 Firth of Forth for about a fortnight. On the 19th the Volun- 

 teer Artillery at Portobello practised at them without success. 

 The following day they were attacked by fishing crews and 

 others from Prestonpans, Newhaven, and other villages, and 

 no fewer than twenty-three of them slain, amidst scenes of 

 intense and savage excitement. The bulk of the slaughter 

 took place in the bay on the east side of Granton harbour. 

 Three more were captured on the 22nd, and one or two others 

 were cast dead on shore by the tide. These particulars are 

 mainly taken from an account of the occurrence communi- 

 cated by the late Mr E. R Alston to the " Zoologist " (1867, 

 p. 801). One of the animals (a female, 15 feet 2 inches in 

 length), of which Mr Alston gives a description, was taken 

 to Glasgow by a party of Newhaven fishermen and exhibited 

 as a " Grampus," shoals of which, they said, were often seen 

 about the Bass Piock, but it was very rarely they entered 



