CETACEA. 21 



have the pectoral fin about | the length from the head, and from 

 % to T V (probably as the inner or outer edge is measured) of the 

 entire length of the body, in lengths, and the dorsal about the 

 entire length from the nose. It would appear as if the middle of 

 the body lengthened more rapidly than the other parts as it grew, 

 at least the young females are shorter in proportion ; for Scores- 

 by's female, 17 feet 6 inches, Hunter's, 17 feet, and one I mea- 

 sured at Deptford, now in the British Museum, 14 feet long, have 

 the pectoral rather less than | the entire length, and the dorsal 

 and vent only about f of the entire length, from the chin, so that 

 the interspace between the pectoral and dorsal must have doubled 

 its length, while those fins retained their original situations with 

 regard to the head and tail. Zool. Erebus Terror, 18. 



Messrs. Knox, having purchased a whale 84 feet long, which 

 was stranded near North Berwick on the 5th of October 1831, 

 and another 10 feet long, taken in the stake nets at Queensferry, 

 Firth of Forth, in February 1834, they determined by anatomical 

 differences that they were distinct species, in a " Catalogue 

 of Anatomical Preparations illustrative of the Whale, by F. J. 

 Knox, Conservator of the Museum in Old Surgeons' Hall," 8vo, 

 Edinburgh, 1838. They distinguished the former by the name 

 of Bal&na maximus borealis, and the latter as Balcena minimus 

 borealis. As no description of the colour of the animal, or any 

 account of the nuchal vertebras, is given, it is impossible, from 

 their account, to determine the species of the former ; but the 

 Catalogue contains some most interesting particulars relative to 

 the anatomy of these animals. 



Fortunately the skeleton of the larger whale was purchased by 

 the Town Council of Edinburgh, and is now exhibited in the Zoolo- 

 gical Gardens of that city, and, as far as it is possible to examine 

 it at the height at which it is suspended, it is a Physalus ; and 

 the same as, or very nearly allied to, the species described in this 

 work under the name of P. antiquorum. The B. minimus borealis 

 appears to be a young specimen of the B. rostrata or Pike Whale 

 of Hunter. Dr. Knox's drawing of this specimen, as suspended, 

 in the act of swimming, is represented in Jardine's Naturalist's 

 Library. 



This was the first time that the Northern Finners had been 

 separated on an actual examination and comparison of specimens. 

 But the pamphlet in which these observations were published 

 being a mere guide to the exhibition, has been overlooked, and I 

 could only procure a copy last year after great trouble, and from 

 the family of the authors. 



Professor Eschricht of Copenhagen, who has devoted much 

 time to the study of the anatomy and development of the North- 

 ern Finners, and has published several papers in the Danish Ian- 



