A WHALE ESCORT. 



and refreshing after the burning days, and being 

 generally fair, and now lighted by the moon, 



" pura nocturno renidet 



Luna mari, " * 



we spend them on deck, as the pleasantest hours 

 of the twenty-four. This evening, the wallowing and 

 sporting of the Whales added a new interest ; and at 

 nearly eleven o'clock, we left them still in company. 



November 23d. — On rising, we were surprised to 

 find the Whales still attending us. I now had an 

 opportunity of seeing the profile of one very dis- 

 tinctly, and of assuring myself that the form of the 

 head was exactly that of the figured Delphinorhyn- 

 clius, no furrow being visible between the forehead 

 and the snout. One of the officers informed me that 

 he had seen one of them breach^ or leap clear out of 

 the water. Soon after 8 a.m. they left us, having 

 continued with us nearly seventeen hours, a period of 

 extraordinary length, when we consider that the 

 visits of frolicsome Cetacea to vessels rarely last more 

 than half an hour or an hour. During the whole of 

 this time, the ship had been running before a gallant 

 breeze, and had proceeded nearly 1 20 English miles. 



I have little doubt that the species was that very 

 interesting and rare Cetacean known as the Toothless 

 Whale of Havre, Delphinorhynchus micropterus. The 

 small size of the dorsal, and its backward position, 

 agreed well with the description of that species, and 

 though these were nearly double the length of that 



* Hon Carm. ii. 5. 

 B 3 



