1864. | DR. J. E, GRAY ON BRITISH CETACEA. 195 
May 24, 1864. 
Prof. Huxley, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. 
Mr. Leadbeater exhibited a remarkable pair of tusks of the Indian 
Elephant from the collection of Sir Victor Brooke, Bart., F.Z.S. 
The following papers were read :— 
1. On THE CETACEA WHICH HAVE BEEN OBSERVED IN THE SEAS 
SURROUNDING THE British Isuanps. By Dr. Joun Ep- 
WARD Gray, F.R.S., Etc. 
There is no series of large animals more difficult to observe and 
to describe than the Whales and Dolphins ; they are unwieldy to 
collect and compare. It is almost impossible to preserve their skins ; 
and when preserved, they are difficult to keep without deterioration, 
and on account of their odour. 
They are only seen at distant periods, and generally either isolated 
or each kind and age in the same school or herd. They are only seen 
alive at a distance from the observer, and generally in rapid motion 
and under unfavourable circumstances for study. 
When the larger kinds are cast ashore, they are seized on by the 
lord of the manor or some other person and sold for their blubber, 
and their bones are often sold for manure. The preparing of the oil 
and the putrefying of the flesh render them by no means desirable 
neighbours ; so that it is not to be wondered at that they are usually 
got rid of as soon as they can be, and that the naturalist has seldom 
the opportunity of examining them. Yet they are objects of general 
interest ; and when they are cast ashore near populous places, they 
are often shown for a time, and the smaller species are sometimes 
even carried far inland and exhibited. 
The only chance that the zoologist has of examining fresh spe- 
cimens of these animals is to watch for their occurrence, and hasten 
to see them while they are in a more or less complete state. 
We have until lately been chiefly indebted to Sibbald, John Hunter, 
and Dr. Knox for the history and anatomy of the British species. 
Mr. Scoresby gave some very interesting particulars on the habits 
and manners of the animals which came under his observation as 
an Arctic whaler. 
Dr. Trail, Mr. Patrick Neil, Dr. Barclay, Dr. Fleming, Mr. Bright- 
well, and I have described some isolated specimens which have oc- 
curred to us, and which had not before been observed in the British 
seas. 
During the last twenty years I have never allowed an opportunity 
to pass when I could examine a recent-caught Cetacean animal or 
its bones, whether they consisted of an entire skeleton or only a 
skull or some isolated bones ; and I have from time to time, in the 
* Monograph on Cetacea,’ in the ‘ Zoology of the Erebus and Terror,’ 
in the ‘ Catalogue of Cetaceans in the Collection of the British Mu- 
