38 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1770". 



Firth of P^'orth, 4 miles above Leith. The fish measured 54 feet in length ; 

 its greatest circumference, which was a little behind the eyes, thirty. The head 

 was nearly half the whole fish, fig. 6, pi. 1, of an oblong form, and rounded, 

 except within 6 feet of the extremity, where it had inequalities. The body was 

 rounded, and gradually tapered to the tail, except about the middle of the back 

 opposite to the penis, where there was a bump or protuberance, but no fin. 

 The tail, as in all the whale tribe, was placed horizontal, a little forked; the 

 blades were of a wedge shape, and 14 feet from tip to tip. In the lower jaw, 

 which was 1 ) feet long, were placed 23 teeth on each side, each 2 inches long, 

 and all pointing a little outwards. The upper jaw, projecting 5 feet over the 

 lower, was quite blunt or truncated, 9 feet high; and the spout-hole, placed at 

 its upper part, appeared to be provided with a sphincter. In the upper jaw, were 

 23 sockets on each side, for lodging the teeth of the lower, when the mouth waS 

 shut; but no teeth. The eyes were remarkably small in proportion to the size 

 of the animal, and placed in the most prominent part of the head. The 

 pectoral fins were placed 5 feet behind the corners of the mouth, and measured 



3 feet in length and 18 inches in breadth. Tlie penis was 7 feet and a half long 

 and placed 19 feet behind the corners of the mouth, inclosed in a strong sheath, 

 the mouth of which was shut with a sphincter: 5 feet behind it was placed the 

 anus, likewise furnished with a sphincter, and the distance, from the anus to 

 the division in the blades of the tail, was 14 feet. 



Thecuticula, or scarf-skin, was extremely thin; on the upper part of the head 

 and whole body, of a bright grey colour, and on the under part of the head of 

 a dirty white; it was smooth and slippery to the touch, easily torn off, and when 

 viewed between the light it appeared scaly. The true skin was of a black colour, 

 about 4- of an inch thick, adhering firmly to the fat, or blubber, which was from 



4 to 9 inches thick. Below the fat every where were tendinous cords, of a 

 bright straw colour, very elastic, strong, and covered with a loose thin mem- 

 braneous coat. On the abdomen were 3 layers of those tendons, which crossed 

 each other obliquely, and, in their direction and situation, greatly resembled the 

 obliquus ascendens and the transversalis of the human body, and they became 

 fleshy where the linea alba is in the human body, and at the lumbal vertebrae. 

 The tendons which appear to arise from the upper ribs, the dorsal vertebrae, and 

 the vertebrae of the neck, arose fleshy, were both flatter and stronger than in 

 any other part of the body, and running along the head with little obliquity, 

 seemed to be inserted tendinous into the cranium, &c. Considering the tail 

 as the OS sacrum or a continuation of the spine, the tendinous muscles belonging 

 to it arose towards the process of one vertebra, and running almost round, 

 was inserted into the process of another, and have much the same effect on the 

 tail as the supinators and pronators have in turning the hand; which circumstance. 



