162 Prof. Eschricht on the Gangetic Dolphin. 



Whale tribe, not particularly sought after, is only accidentally 

 caught in the net of the fisherman ; and consequently it rarely 

 reaches the naturalist in a sound condition, especially under 

 the hot sun of India. In the present case, however, the ani- 

 mal was instantly forwarded to M. Reinhardt, the distinguished 

 zoologist of the expedition. The painter attached to his de- 

 partment, Mr. Christian Thornam, immediately depicted it ; the 

 dimensions were carefully noted, and a skeleton prepared, no 

 doubt the completest which exists anywhere. M. Reinhardt, 

 further, collected on the spot various data connected with the 

 habits of the animal, forming important matter for a closer 

 acquaintance with a member of the family of Whales, so re- 

 markable on account .of its skeleton and outer form. It was 

 M. Reinhardt's intention to have undertaken the subject him- 

 self; but as it was desirable that no time should be lost, and 

 as he was about leaving for South America for some years, on a 

 scientific voyage, having only lately returned from those shores, 

 where he quitted the " Galathea," he very readily, and in the most 

 friendly manner, transferred all his materials to me, on purpose 

 that I might prepare a memoir for the Academy's Transactions ; 

 an undertaking, which I acknowledge was attended with no small 

 responsibility. In order to point out the importance of the sub- 

 ject, and the mode in which I propose treating it, it appears to 

 me to be necessary to take a view of our acquaintance with the 

 Gangetic dolphin, up to the present time. 



The honour of first making the animal known to the scientific 

 world is justly shared between the Danish missionary Lebeck of 

 Tranquebar*, and Dr. Roxburgh of Calcuttaf, who simulta- 

 neously, in 1801, published an account of it, as inhabiting the 

 Hoogly, one of the lowest branches of the river J. Both accounts 



* Delpinus gangeticus beschrieben vom Herrn Heinrich Julius Lebeck 

 zu Trankenbar. Der Gesellschaft Naturf. Freunde zu Berlin neue Schriften, 

 3 Band. Berlin, 1801, p. 280-282. t. 2. 



t An account of a new species of Delphinus, an inhabitant of the 

 Ganges. Asiat. Res. vol. vii. Calcutta, 1801, 4to, p. 170-174. t. 5. — I have 

 been enabled to quote the original edition of this expensive work (com- 

 menced in 1788), which was presented by Dr. Wallich to the University 

 Library. The two London reprints are commonly quoted ; one in 4to, began 

 in 17^9, having the same paging; the other in 8vo, in 1801. Sir E. Home 

 erroneously dates Roxburgh's memoir from 1781; and Fred. Cuvier states 

 the former to have dated it from 1 721, asking at the same time, whether the 

 ' Researches ' already then existed ? — a question which turns upon a two- 

 fold mistake. 



X I have left out a slight error here : it was only Dr. Roxburgh, who re- 

 sided on the banks of the Ganges, or rather the Hoogly. On consulting 

 the above-cited place in ' Schrift. der Gesellsch. Nat. Fr.,' I find from an 

 immediately following paper of the Rev. Dr. John, Missionary at Tran- 

 quebar, on the Uranoscopus Lebeckii, that this missionary Lebeck, had 

 visited the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, and the coast of Coromandel, and 

 was at the time proceeding to Java. — Transl. 



