BY H. H. SCOTT AND CLIVE E. LORD. 3 



ships were fitted out. This revival lasted for about fifteen 

 years, and then the decline commenced until in the early 

 nineties the whaler Waterwitch was the sole vessel engasecl. 

 It is of intea-est to recall the fact that William Lanny 

 ("King Billy''), the last Tasmaniaa male aboriginal, follow- 

 ed the calling of a whaler. He made his final voyage m 

 the Runnymede, and was paid off on February 26th, 1869, 

 and died a few days later (^a). 



INTRODUCTION. 



Students of the Tasmanian Cetacea have for many 

 years been in search of some Tasmanian records relating 

 to the munificent osteological presentations made tO' several 

 English scientific institutions by the late Dr. W. L. 

 Crowther. Since the year 1902 Mr. Scott has been work- 

 ing on the Tasmanian Cetacea (5i, and has been most anxi- 

 ous to obtain Tasmanian records relating to the late Dr. 

 Crowther s collections for the purpose of investigating the 

 question of the comparative anatomy of certain species. 

 Upon Mr. Lord's appointment as Curator of the Tasman- 

 ian Museum a thorough overhaul of the Museum store speci- 

 mens was made with the result that a series of hitherto 

 undcscribed specimens were brought to light. As certain 

 of these v^-ere undoubtedly portion of the Crowther collec- 

 tion a thorough investigation was decided upon. Upon 

 this being made a considerable amount of interesting data 

 was obtained, which appeared well worth}'- of being placed 

 on record, and the following notes are therefore the result 

 of our observations. 



Between the years 1866 and 1871 the late Dr. W. L. 

 Crowther, of Hobart, who was interested in the whaling 

 industry, colleeted a large number of skeletal remains of 

 various Tasmanian Cetacea, and presented them to several 

 English Museums. Some of these specimens still claim 

 folios in the Catalogues of the British Museum and the 

 Royal College of Surgeons' Museum. Mr. Scott made an 

 effort in 1902 to trace some of Dr. Crowther's specimens in 

 the State, as he was then engaged in publishing a series of 

 articles on this subject. At that time his inquiries did not 

 meet with success, but the matter was alwa^^s kept in mind. 

 Owing to the recent revision of the Basement stores of the 

 Tasmanian Museum some old boxes which had evidently 

 been stored away from the time they were moved from the 

 old Museum of the Royal Society to the present building 



(4a) Bonwick. The Last of tlie Tasmanians, p. 395. 



(5) Scott, Launceston Courier. 1902, Scott. Notes on a fossil whale 

 from Wynyard, Pap. and Proc. Pi,oy. Soc. Tas., 1913, p. 167. 



