gosse's delphixoehyxchtis. 367 



and zoologists are not yet agreed among themselves, 

 whether the High-finned Cachalot is a myth or a reality ! 



M. Eafinesque Smaltz, a Sicilian naturalist, described a 

 Cetacean which, he said, he had seen in the Mediterranean, 

 possessing two dorsals. The character was so abnormal 

 that his statement was not received ; but the eminent 

 zoologists attached to one of the French exploring expedi- 

 tions, — MM, Quoy and Gaimard, — saw a school of cetacea 

 around their ship in the South Pacific, having this extra- 

 ordinary character, — the supernumerary fin being placed 

 on the back of the head. Here is the evidence of com- 

 petent naturalists to the existence of a most remarkable 

 whale, no carcase of which, no skeleton, has ever been 

 recognised. 



The last example I shall adduce is from my own ex- 

 perience. During my voyage to Jamaica, when in lat 

 19° N., and long, from 46° to 48° W., the ship was sur- 

 rounded for seventeen continuous hours with a troop of 

 whales, of a species which is certainly undescribed. I 

 had ample opportunity for examination, and foimd that 

 it was a Delphinorhynchus, thirty feet in length, black 

 above and white beneath, with the swimming paws white 

 on the upper surface, and isolated by the surrounding 

 black of the upper parts, — a very remarkable character. 

 This could not have been the Toothless Whale of Havre; 

 and there is no other with which it can be confounded. 

 Here, then, is a whale of large size, occurring in great 

 numbers in the North Atlantic, which on no other occa- 

 sion has fallen under scientific observation. 



