INTRODUCTION. 



Scotland, from its position between the North Sea and the Atlantic, 

 and through the great firths or estuaries which penetrate inland for 

 many miles, is favourably situated for the study of the Cetacea. The 

 Orkney and Shetland groups of islands to ihe north, and the Hebridean 

 islands to the west of the mainland, with their bays and intervening 

 straits and channels, add largely to the coast-line. The Cetacea, in 

 their migrations at some seasons to the north, at others to the south, 

 not infrequently become stranded, and their capture gives opportunities 

 to Naturalists to determine the Species and to become acquainted with 

 their Anatomy. 



Ample evidence exists that, in Prehistoric times, before the land 

 and the sea had assumed their present level, whales, sometimes of 

 great dimensions, had been stranded both on the east and west 



As portions of the skeletons of some of these animals are in the 

 Anatomical Museum, it may be of interest to relate the conditions 

 under which bones of the prehistoric whales have been found. 



From time to time specimens have been exposed in the banks of 

 the Irvine river, Ayrshire, not far from the town of Irvine. The 

 Rev. D. Landsborough stated that in 1790 some bones were found 

 in the bank of the river where a new channel had been formed. In 

 1863 a further discovery of a portion of the skeleton of a whale was 

 made in the river bank about a mile from the town, and the same 

 distance from the sea. The bed of the river at the spot was said to 

 be about 25 feet above sea-level. Some of the bones were removed 

 and presented to the Glasgow University Hunterian Museum. In 

 1892 another series of bones was exposed, about 250 paces from the 

 spot where the skeleton was found in 1863. One of large size was 

 a part of the skull, and it was said to have rested on a bed of shingle 

 stones and gravel, immediately below which was a thin layer of 

 peaty-looking substance from half an inch to 2 inches in thickness. 

 The skull bone is preserved in a museum in Kilmarnock. From its 

 size and character the skull was probably that of a Balsenoptera. Mr 

 John Smith, in a description of the geological position of the Irvine 

 Whale Bed, stated that he saw the specimen in situ lying in a darkish 

 sand about 3 feet above the water of the river, and perhaps 10 feet 



