324 W AITE 
‘Having breasted Commissioner’s Point we looked down to 
the beach and there saw what resembled a large vessel bottom 
upwards. This was the whale. No words of mine can convey the 
slightest idea of the enormous mass spread before us. You may 
step out 87 feet but you cannot realise the bulk of the creature. 
The men who claimed the carcase had cut away some of the blubber, 
and the escaping oil saturated the sand all around. The effect of 
this was very noticeable on the would-be breakers ; far from the 
vicinity of the whale they were smoothed down and an attempt to 
wash the hands in the sea seemed only to add a little more oil to 
them. The whale had been lying dead on the beach for two weeks 
when we first saw it—so there was another noticeable and memorable 
feature in connection with it. I cannot say at what distance the 
odour of dead whale was apparent, but it was confidently predicted 
that both my taxidermist and myself would lose our breakfasts as 
others had done, but we proved to be superior to such a trifle. 
“The next and subsequent days were spent alongside the 
whale, and much labour was expended in trying to reduce the bulk 
ot the creature. Attention was especially directed to cutting away 
the flesh on the lower jaw and the beach was strewn with masses 
each as large as an ox, and then but half, or less, had been removed. 
Having worked down to the palate we found that the whalebone was 
missing. My opinion is that the whale had been dead some time 
before it was cast on to the beach and that as the flesh rotted away, 
the baleen was washed out. This was a sad loss to the men, for 
they had an offer of £100 for the whalebone alone. Large scars on the 
body showed where barnacles had been but the animals had all 
dropped off when the host died. The question was raised as 
to how the huge creature met its death, and the only answer 
seems to be—old age. It is, of course possible that the baleen 
had dropped out much as old people lose their teeth, and that 
the whale died of starvation. I should imagine, however, that the 
whalebone was lost after death. 
“T had hoped to secure the skeleton of the whale for the 
Museum, but, under the circumstances, this proved to be, at the 
time, impossible. Whale’s flesh is exceedingly tough and abso- 
lutely no tools were to be obtained, excepting an old hay knife, 
which, however, did remarkably good service. It could be used 
but by one man at a time, and several would be required for earnest 
work. Then there was the labour question. Very few men were 
available and as they were earning good wages at the flax and 
timber mills, there was evident disinclination to leave such work to 
cut up whale notwithstanding an offer of advance in wages.” 
That the skeleton was ultimately secured for the Museum is a 
matter of history. As a result of many representations made to my 
friend, Mr. Edgar F. Stead, he formed a small syndicate, and in 
