i68 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER 



arrived from Greenland ; in 1867 ^ complete 

 narwhal skeleton; in 1868 the hitherto unknown 

 Chinese dolphin {D . sinensis) \ in 1872 a specimen 

 of BerardiuSy an extremely rare whale from New 

 Zealand, belonging to the family of the Ziphioids ; 

 and in 1874 a dolphin of the Ganges." 



Opportunities for original study were naturally 

 intermittent for any one who could not devote some 

 years to whaling voyages. But Flower never lost a 

 chance of seeing for himself the bodies or skeletons 

 of the various Cetacea, whether stranded on the 

 coast or in foreign museums. The results were 

 seen in their most complete form in his essays on 

 Whales and Whale Fisheries, originally given in 

 the form of a lecture delivered at the Royal Colonial 

 Institution in 1895, and reprinted with his Essays 

 on Museums. In it he gave a full account not only 

 of the wonderful structure of the various whales 

 and of their habits as they roam the ocean or 

 keep to the ice-fringe, according to their species, 

 but also traced the scene of the whale fishery from 

 its ancient field in the Bay of Biscay gradually 

 northward as the whales were killed off and new 

 grounds had to be found. 



Before referring further to these chapters we may 

 perhaps, with the advantage of looking back through 

 Flower's skeleton diaries, which he kept without a 

 break from 1853 till his death in 1899, follow his 

 own ** whaling excursions " and see how exact 

 knowledge on such a difficult subject may be quietly 



