I 



CHAPTER II. 



ON THE ETJPHYSETES GRAYII. 



The euquiries for boues, which iu my search for tlie pelvit=i of 

 the sperm whale, I lately instituted along the coast in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of Sydney, have excited such interest 

 among settlers near the sea that I trust our Australian Museum 

 is at length in possession of the nucleus of what hereafter will 

 become a classical collection of the remains of cetaceous 

 mammals. Such remains form the rarest specimens to be seen 

 in European collections ; and our immediate proximity to the 

 Pacific Ocean affords to Sydney peculiar advantages for assem- 

 bling materials, upon which a thorough investigation of this 

 obscure department of zoology may be founded. One advantage 

 already secured by my enquiries has been the discovery of a new- 

 animal, about nine or ten feet long, and the lodging an almost 

 perfect skeleton of it in our museum. 



Mr. Brown, a gentleman residing in the neighbourhood of 

 Botany, who had kindly assisted me in my search for the second 

 sperm whale, sent me word in the month of Sej)tember last that 

 a young one had been thrown ashore at Maroubra Beach, half- 

 way between Coogee and Botany. To this place I immediately 

 proceeded, and found half buried in the sand the remains of a 

 cetacean that appeared to have been dead about six weeks. The 

 rumour since has been that such an animal was about that time 

 seen Avithin the Heads of Port Jackson, and, being taken for a 

 young sperm, was repeatedly fired at. Whether this was our 

 animal, or such the cause of its death, cannot now be ascertained. 

 The carcass, when I discovered it, had been so much devoured by 

 native dogs and other animals of prey that no part remained of 



