194 REINHARDT ON 



Garten,'^ and some additional and more satisfactory knowledge about its outward appearance 

 has also been gained in another way, namely, by the assistance of some photographs, pretty well 

 executed," and a very fine plaster-of-Paris model, about seventeen inches long, which Professor 

 Behn ordered to be made of the animal, just after it was killed. Here accordingly, we have 

 another form that cannot be left unnoticed in deciding the question to what species the animals 

 thrown ashore on Asnæs and Refsnæs belonged ; and besides the size, there were, indeed, several 

 other points in the latter specimens, for instance, the form and size of the pectoral fins, the 

 number and appearance of the teeth, that could not but lead our researches to the Kiel dolphin, 

 and raise a strong supposition in favour of its being really of the same species as the object of 

 our present examination. To this it may be objected, that it would be strange if a dolphin, 

 not known to have been observed previously in the North, had now suddenly appeared in the 

 coiu'se of a few months, not only once but thrice ; it may, however, on second thoughts, be con- 

 sidered still more extraordinary if, at short intervals, two great, hitherto unknown Cetaceans 

 had made their appearance on our coasts, and the objection will lose all its weight, when w^e 

 consider that it was not a single individual, but a great shoal, evidently astray,^ that entered 

 the Bay of Kiel, and that, most probably, the Refsnæs and the Asnæs dolphins belonged to the 

 same. For it is likely enough* that such a shoal, having once strayed into strange and narrow 

 seas, may continue to roam in them for a long time, without being able to find its way out again 

 into the open ocean. However, as we know nothing essential about the Kiel dolphin, except as 

 far as its external appearance is concerned, the skeleton being still perfectly unknown, and 

 as, on the other hand, I did not know much about the outward appearance of my dolphins (the 

 shape of the pectoral fins alone excepted, having found one of those of the individual buried at 

 Refsnæs in a condition so little injured, that I was able to take an exact copy of its outHne), 

 1 might, indeed, resting on the information before me, consider it to be very probable, that _ 

 the latter two were of the same species as the former one, but as matters stood, a perfect 

 certainty could only be obtained by a comparison of the skeletons, or at all events of their more 

 characteristic parts. I wrote, accordingly, to Professor Behn, in order to get the question 

 settled in this way, adding a sketch of the cranium of the individual stranded at Asnæs. That 

 gentleman, formerly my fellow voyager, had the kindness not only to confirm my supposition, 

 but at the same time to furnish me with such information about the cranium of the skeleton set 



1 III Jahrgang, No. 3 (Februar, 1862), p. 39. ~ See figure at p. 191. 



^ For we suppose that very few will believe that these colossal auimals are natives of the Baltic, 

 and the narrow sounds between our islands, or that they even appear rather frequently in these seas. 



* That these individuals really belonged to the shoal that entered the Bay of Kiel is rendered 

 still more probable by the fact, already mentioned, that an individual of the same species was 

 also found at Middelfart, shortly before Whitsuntide, 1863, that is just in the interval between 

 the time when the shoal was first discovered in the Bay of Kiel and the stranding of the carcass 

 found at Refsnæs. I should not be surprised if part of the shoal dispersed at Kiel were still, 

 at the time when I am writing this, roaming about in our sounds and belts, and if the two large 

 dolphins which, according to the statements of the newspapers, were thrown ashore at Naskov in the 

 end of October, 1863, should also prove to have belonged to the same species. The size (a length of 

 seven or nine ells, and a " circumference as that of a horse ") would at all events favour such a sup- 

 position. It is to be regretted that the measures taken to endeavour to preserve some parts of these 

 animals for our museums, have been, as far as I know, unsuccessful. 



