8 







6 



6 



6 







2 







2 







25 



Rorqualus (Sp.,) Trigger-fin, Razor-back, Sulphur-bottom (to be distinguished 

 from the Finner, which is properly the B. Mary'mata.) 



The fin which in this species of the Balsenidae is placed in the usual 

 situation, immediately above the generative organs, is said to average from 

 thirty to fifty-five feet in length. The baleen is short ; and the blubber in 

 comparatively small quantity. The whales of this species resemble the great 

 Rorqual in their general habits, and, although numerous, do not form a 

 tempting object of capture for the practical whaler. They are common in the 

 neighbourhood of the New Zealand group of islands. 



Two young specimens were caught and stranded in Porirua Harbour, in 

 1867, neither of which I was able to preserve ; only taking the measurements 

 as detailed in the annexed tables. The dorsal surface was of a jetty and glossy 

 black, becoming of a light-grey on the abdomen. The characteristic plicae or 

 folds were well-developed ; the longest baleen blade was two inches, of a pale 

 yellow or cream colour. The osteology and comparative anatomy of this 

 whale were not ascertained. 



A young female specimen, weighed . . . 300 lbs. 



It measured as follows : — 



ft. in. lines. 



Snout to tip of tail 9 10 



Greatest circumference . . . . " 6 



Snout to nostrils . . . . .1 



,, to centre of eye .... 1 



,, to dorsal fin . . . . .5 



Baleen, pale rose colour, longest blade . 



General Observations on the Bal^enid^e. 



The entire form of the animals so nearly resembles a fish, as to lead the 

 naturalist, and practical whaler, to insist that the Cetacese are fishes ; nothing 

 but the researches of the anatomist could have rescued the whale from that 

 class. 



The exhibition of the greac Rorqual, at the Royal Institution, in 1835, 

 was considered by the great mass of the visitors, as a sheer imposition. They 

 wished to see the skin stuffed. The baleen (in that case in situ) was disbelieved 

 to be a reality by most persons who visited the exhibition. One or two 

 persons actually demanded a return of the admission fee. Yet to the 

 anatomist, the contemplation of the spinal column (trunk) composed of sixty- 

 five vertebra? (out of many of which the entire skeleton of the ox could have 

 been fashioned), and these connected by sixty-five joints, many of them 

 containing a gallon of joint-oil, presented a lever, or rather a whip-shaft, to 

 the tail, which left no doubt of the effects of the application of its distal 

 extremity to a whale-boat. 



I remember a whaler of the name of Thorns, residing on the Island of 

 Kapiti, who was merely touched by the tail of a Mysticete, and nearly every 

 bone on one side of the body was broken. Fortunately, there was no " duly 

 qualified doctor " to be had, and Thorns conseqiiently got quite well, with the 

 exception of a slight lameness. When brought to the station, he was lifted 

 out of the boat with considerable difficulty, being literally glued to the boat 

 by the blood lost. 



The sternum, also, is remarkably short, having only two or three pairs of 

 ribs connected to it. Now, this, instead of indicating a rudimentary con- 

 dition, rather proved the Divine pei-fection in all nature's works. In 

 consequence of the smallness of the sternum, the great respiratory muscle — 

 the diaphragm — measured in the great Rorqual, 60 feet in length, by an 



