350 Mr Lillie, Notes on the Larger Cetacea. 



Directly a whale is hauled up the slip or landing stage the 

 whalebone and the blubber are rapidly stripped off and the latter 

 boiled to extract the oil. The remainder of the carcase is dragged 

 asunder by means of wire ropes and steam winches and cut up by 

 many hands. The bones and soft parts are roughly separated, 

 dried and ground in mills to form bone manure, flesh manure, 

 cattle food and, at some stations, various forms of preserved meat 

 for human consumption. In this way a whole animal 70 feet long 

 and as many tons in weight will often disappear completely in the 

 course of a morning. 



To the scientific man a whaling station does not pretend to 

 offer the advantages of unlimited time and comfort which are to 

 be found in a laboratory. It is so essential, in the whaling trade, 

 to dispose of the animals as rapidly as possible while the oil is 

 fresh that the whalers can hardly be expected to wait for the 

 deliberations of the anatomist. Yet there can be little doubt 

 that to visit a whaling station such as the one in the west of 

 Ireland is a more satisfactory method of increasing our knowledge 

 of the larger Cetacea, than to depend upon the occasional stranding 

 of an isolated specimen on some part of the coast. For at a 

 station all the largest whales, with the exception of Balaena 

 nii/sticetus and Rhachianectes glaucus, can usually be seen within 

 the space of three months. Very frequently several individuals 

 of different species can be examined and compared as regards 

 their external characters and their internal characters also, 

 according to the skill of the investigator in overcoming the 

 obvious difficulties arising from the manipulation of such large 

 creatures. The material is often sufficiently fresh for histological 

 study, which, on account of the gigantic size of the animals, should 

 prove of considerable interest. Moreover exceptional opportunities 

 occur for observing the animals in the living state. 



With regard to the smaller Cetaceans, since they are seldom 

 killed by man, material is difficult to obtain ; but the study of 

 these animals is not at the moment so pressing as that of the 

 rapidly decreasing larger forms. 



It now remains to briefly record one of the several observations 

 which were made at the Irish whaling station, during a visit of 

 seven weeks, in the past summer. 



The distribution and significance of the scanty hairs of the 

 Cetacea do not appear to have been hitherto studied in the detail 

 they deserve. They have been vaguely referred to as occurring on 

 the lower jaw of some adult forms. Sometimes they have been 

 found on the foetus only. 



In two adult Sperm whales {Physeter macrocephahis) seen at 

 Innishkea this summer, no trace of hairs could be found on any 

 part of the animals even after careful searching. 



