1864.] STRANDED ON THE NORFOLK COAST. 253 
In the month of November 1860 that gentleman received infor- 
mation from his gamekeeper at Northrepps that a Whalebone Whale, 
about 25 feet long, had been washed ashore in the adjoining parish 
of Overstrand, about a mile and a half 8.E. of Cromer. — It had evi- 
dently been dead some time, as decomposition was considerably ad- 
vanced. Mr. Gurney ordered the baleen to be removed from the 
mouth and preserved, and the carcase to be carefully buried in an 
accessible place, with the intention of disinterring the bones at some 
future time. Mr. Gurney having presented the skeleton to the Col- 
lege of Surgeons, I succeeded in March last in digging it up, and 
removing it to London. The operation was conducted with great 
care ; none of the bones were lost or injured; and such observations 
were made upon their relations to each other, while still undisturbed, 
as might be useful in articulating the skeleton. For instance, the 
different parts of the vertebral column were measured as they lay 
in situ, so as to preserve the exact thickness of the intervertebral 
substance in the various regions. Unfortunately, in removing some 
of the flesh before the carcase was buried, those most interesting 
bones which form the rudimentary pelvis, so rarely to be found at- 
tached even to our best-preserved museum specimens of Cetacea, 
had been thrown away. Some of the phalanges of both fins were 
also wanting ; but otherwise the skeleton is perfect. 
One of the greatest problems to be solved by future cetologists re- 
lates to the specific distinctions of the Fin- Whales (Balenoptera, La- 
cépéde, Physalus and Balenoptera, Gray). The confusion in which 
the history and nomenclature of these, the largest of known animals, 
are involved appears inextricable. Chiefly by the invaluable labours 
of Eschricht, one species, however, has been definitely separated from 
all the larger members of the group by numerous well-marked ana- 
tomical as well as external characters. This is the Zwergwall of the 
Germans, the Vaagequal of the Norwegians, Balena rostrata of Fa- 
bricius and J. Hunter, and Pterobalena minor of Eschricht*. Dr. 
J. E. Gray+ goes further, and separates the species generically from 
the other Fin-Whales, limiting to it Lacépéde’s designation of Bale- 
noptera, and assigning that of Physalus to its gigantic allies. That 
the specimen under consideration belongs to the genus, subgenus, or 
section Balenoptera thus limited there can be no doubt ; but whether 
this section contains but a single species, and the osteological differ- 
ences which I shall have to point out between the Cromer specimen 
and those previously described are merely individual characters, 
though highly probable, may still be held as an open question—one 
which can only be determined by the examination and comparison of 
a larger number of skeletons than are at present available for the 
purpose ft. 
* Opera, passim. See especially ‘ Untersuchungen iiber die nordischen Wall- 
thiere,’ Leipzig, 1849. 
t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1847 ; Cat. Cetacea, Brit. Mus. 
t Dr. Gray’s comprehensive and valuable paper on the British Whales (see 
ante, p. 195), containing his most recent views on the subject referred to above, 
being read to the Society on the same evening as the present communication 
was of course unknown to the author when this was written. 
