7310 Cetaeea. 



ihe horse was no other than a common German hacl<nry. I need not follow Sehald's 

 history of the animal from a coll; suffice to say that it had belony:ed lo a coach pro- 

 prietor in Franconia, and then was in no respect different from any other horse of its 

 iiind, except that it was taken wiih the strangles. The coach proprietor then sold it 

 to a neighbouring peasant, who, according to the custom of the country, gave the 

 horse leaves of the savin-tree {Juniperus Sabina) as a cure for the disease. The 

 savin apparently cured the horse, but the peasant, to prevent a relapse, gave it more 

 or less of those leaves for a whole year. In the meantime the horse began to have a 

 nice, sleek coat of hair, which, however, soon dropped off, leaving the animal almost 

 naked : another coat ensued, and this also soon dropped off. Nature, however, made a 

 last effort: the hair grew for a third time, but once more dropped off entirely, and 

 never attempted to grow again. The peasant continued to work the animal, but was 

 so annoyed by the neighbours laughing at his naked horse that he took it back to the 

 coach proprietor, and begged that he would lake it off his hands on any terms. The 

 coach proprietor did so, and, taking it to another part of the country, exhibited it as a ] 

 Cyprus-horse ; but, dreading a very salutary German law which places what we may 

 term the high art of the noble science of showmanship in the same category as 

 swindling, he sold the animal to an Italian exhibitor, who took it lo France. The 

 Italian, in turn, sold it lo Alpy, who brought it back to Germany, where it became 

 famous as the Nile-horse. — William Pinkerton. 



Occurrence of Hi/peroodon roslralus at Weston-super-Mare. — I am induced to send 

 the measurements of the Hyperoodon lately shot at Weston-super-Mare, on account 

 of the interest attached to this little-known group, and also because lo a good figure 

 and description in the ' Illustrated London News' for November 17 is appended the 

 wrong name. The Weston specimen was 26 feel long, from posterior origin of dorsal 

 to insertion of tail 6 feet, from ditto to snout 18 feet. Dorsal fin I foot 11 inches 

 long, 1 foot 5 inches high. Tail 1 foot in diameter, 2 feet in depth. Vertical height 

 of forehead from gape I foot 8 inches, ditto from upper jaw (insertion) 10 inches. 

 Cloaca lo insertion of tail 5 fVet 3 inches. Pectorals 2 feet 5 inches in length, 9 inches 

 in breadth ; distance between pectorals beneath I foot 8 inches. Height of body at 

 anterior base of dorsal 4 feet, at insertion of tail 1 foot 4 inches, circumference at base 

 of pectoia'is 11 feet 6 inches, at blow-hole 9 feet 6 inches, at anterior insertion of dor- 

 sal 10 feet, from gape to muzzle 2 feet, from gape to eye 2 feel, from eye to spiracle 

 2 feet. Spiracle 5^ feet from cusp to cusp, but it is doubtful (an anchor having been 

 placed in it) whether the cusps were forward or backward ; I think the former. The 

 species is, no doubt, Hyperoodon rostratus, and the figure in Bell's ' Quadrupeds ' 

 called H. Bulzkopf is very like it. I have not yet been able to examine the mouih for 

 teeth, but it is probable that two exist in the lower jaw. What cause should have 

 impelled these northern animals to visit our shores, first at Whitstable and then at 

 Weston, is quite conjectural. In 1841 a whale of this species was killed near Bristol, 

 and is there preserved, at least the skeleton ; and now, after a lapse of twenty years, 

 two more are observed to wander up the same channel. — W. D. Crotch ; Uphill 

 House, Weston-super-Mare, November 18, 1860. 



Capture of a Whale in Loch Sunart. — The following account of the capture of a 

 whale, which I have just received from my Highland home, Sironiian, on Lech 



