of the tail, containing ten of the caudal vertebrse, and also that 

 a fin, were deficient. The tail had been sent to Sydney with the 

 blubber ; but as I soon found it on Hughes' Wharf, in Sussex- 

 street, I then, by permission of Colonel Baddeley, of the Eoyal 

 Engineers, carried the whole of the bones in my possession to 

 Pinchgut Island, where, under a course of lime and other 

 preparations, at the end of two months they were thoroughly 

 bleached and freed from oil and all off'ensive odour. As to the lost 

 fin, every hope of recoverijig it had been abandoned, when I was 

 informed by two boys that a strange fish was lying on a rock 

 near the bath, in "Woolloomooloo Bay. This, fortunately, turned 

 out to be the part missing, which, by the way, was by far the 

 most interesting of the two fins, as it was the right one, the 

 bones of which are considerably larger than those of the left, 

 and also more perfect. The fin had been removed from the 

 whale by the crew of a coasting vessel, while they were wind- 

 bound in "Woolloomooloo Bay. Their object was to render it 

 down into oil ; but a fair wind springing up before they had 

 time to eftect their purpose, they cut it adrift, when it probably 

 floated to the place where the boys so fortunately discovered it. 



I state these facts in order to show the obstacles which I had 

 to encounter before I was enabled to obtain so perfect an 

 assemblage of the bones. Those finally deficient turned out to 

 be merely the bones of the pelvis, which were most likely to 

 escape our notice, from not being articulated to any of the other 

 bones, but only suspended in the flesh of the belly. Shortly, 

 however, after the skeleton had been set up, I heard of another 

 sperm whale having been killed ofE the Heads of Botany Bay, 

 and that it had been washed ashore on the sandy beach that 

 extends between that Bay and Port Hacking. I was resolved to 

 complete my collection of the bones, but experienced considerable 

 difiiculty in discovering the carcass of this last whale, as it was 

 nearly buried in the sand. It proved to be that of a female, a 

 little larger than the other. With some danger from the heavy 

 surf which broke over it I contrived to secure the two pelvic 

 bones of the right side and also the atlas and axis, with a 



