242 The Under-Water World 



appears to have enjoyed a wide distri- 

 bution in prehistoric times, and in recent 

 years chance specimens have been met 

 with off the coasts of Denmark and Tas- 

 mania. Prior to the appearance of the 

 Ross-shire school, only some half dozen 

 preserved specimens were in existence in 

 widely separated museums. The great 

 majority of whales seen in our museums 

 are stranded specimens, and this for a 

 curious reason. A whale once aground 

 cannot, like a reptile or fish, turn in its 

 own length, or even three times its length. 

 The backbone is singularly inflexible, in- 

 deed many of the vertebrae of the neck 

 are fused together to form one, rendering 

 any side movement of the head impos- 

 sible, and the head of some species is 

 quite a third of the entire length. The 

 tail also is set horizontally, not vertically , 

 as in a fish, making it impossible to use 

 this appendage as a lever. For this 

 reason all whales swim with an up and 



