172 PROFESSOR OWEN ON INDIAN CETACEA. 
time, and leaving little leisure for other pursuits. Having always been fond of natural 
history, I kept a draughtsman continually engaged in depicting objects of interest. 
My house was on the sea-shore, and the fishermen from several miles along the coast 
used almost daily to bring me something or other which they considered to be rare 
or curious. But as I went to my office at 10 o'clock a.m., and did not return till 6 
or 7 P.M., my artist had orders to proceed with his sketches as soon as the speci- 
mens were brought to him. On my return home in the evening, my first business 
was to inspect his work. By dint of constant supervision, I brought him to the exercise 
of scrupulous accuracy. If I found the least mistake, I had another drawing made the 
following day. He was principally engaged on naked mollusks, crustacea, and the 
mutations of lepidoptera, which he drew with the aid of the microscope. To the 
exactitude of these, Messrs. Alder and Hancock’s paper on the Indian Nudibranchs, in a 
former volume of the ‘ Transactions, bears testimony. 
“The Wongu or Physeter was brought to my house on the 28th of February, 1853. 
On examining the sketch the same evening, I was not satisfied with it, and therefore 
directed a more accurate drawing to be made, which was done, under my inspection, 
early the following morning. I was much interested in the specimen, which I believed 
to exhibit an entirely new form; and I made the following note in pencil on the back of 
the revised drawing, which is still legible:—‘ If the description of the Porpoise-family 
is correct, this must be a very different genus. The mouth is small, very much under 
the rounded snout, not reaching so far back as the eye, which is far above it, in a line 
with the rounded snout. The blow-hole is in front of the eyes, and (in this individual’) 
to the left of the middle line of the back, opening diagonally, with the points curving 
slightly backwards. Colour above shining black, smooth; beneath pale, and in this one 
discoloured with blood. Fore part (é.¢. in front of the dorsal) depressed; behind the 
D. much compressed; the part nearest the tail rising into a sharp ridge.’ On the face 
of the drawing I wrote in ink ‘ new sp. Tel. name, wongu: adult ¢ : Waltair, March 1, 
1853;’ and under the mouth I noted the dentition ‘3.4.’ On the first or cancelled 
sketch, the only writing was a note in the handwriting of the painter, ‘Found at 
Waltair on the 28th Feby. ’53, and, in Telugu characters, the name ‘ wongu.’ 
“Having completed the drawing, I made the following entry in my note-book :— 
‘March 1, 1853.—A large Porpoise was brought by the Vizagapatam fishermen, of 
which the following is the description :— 
ft. in. 
Totallength Ri wi. We se APART toes |. oN nee aera ae (fee. 
fiat) ao avi, $n 
Brom’ muzzle vorspiracle sy). 5.0.8 soya miele ore Ont 
Prom. spiraclembo dorsalis cfye ska puesst rep eysy eae Ae) 
From commencement of dorsal to end of caudal .. 3 10 
—— 7 2 
 T then thought this circumstance was accidental, 
