187 
OCCURRENCE OF THE COMMON RORQUAL, 
OR FINNER, IN THE HUMBER. 
JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.0O.U., 
Eaton Hall, Retford. : 
On April 14th a large whale of this species (Balenoptera musculus) 
was seen blowing in the North Channel, and subsequently it got 
stranded on ‘The Den’—a prominent shoal or bank within the 
Spurn, and presumably the site of the old Humber towns of 
Ravenser and Ravenserodd. Mr. Winson, to whom I am indebted 
for the earliest information on the subject, writes:—‘We succeeded 
in killing it by stopping up the blow-hole with seaweed, mud and 
gravel; when the whale was dying it opened its mouth, displaying 
two beautiful rows, eighteen inches deep at the back and about nine 
wide, of what appeared to be whalebone, extending the whole length 
of the top jaws—a man could have walked upright into its mouth— 
I can assure you a most wonderful sight. Yesterday (the 15th) we 
towed it across to Cleethorpes for exhibition.’ 
On the 16th I had an opportunity of viewing it on the coast near 
» Cleethorpes, in company with Mr. H. B. Hewetson, of Leeds, who, 
despite the Arctic weather, was able to take several photographs. 
It was then on its back and partly buried in mud and sand. The 
dimensions, as I was then able to take them, and taking half the 
girth and doubling it, were as follows :—Total length over all, 76 ft.; 
girth behind flippers, 32 ft. 4 in.; gape, 15 ft. 6 in.; across tail 
(extreme), 1 5 ft. 6 in.; length of pectoral fin, 7 ft. 6 in. The colour 
greyish-black above, very smooth and polished looking. The under 
parts white. Owing to the rigor mortis having set in, it was impossible, 
€ven with mechanical appliances, to raise the lower jaw, which was 
then uppermost, so as to examine the baleen plates; by reclining 
on the sand and looking under the lip I could see that the external 
surface of these was nearly white, towards the front clouded with 
violet or dusky-grey. This, and the comparatively small size of the 
pectorals, as well as some other external features, point to the con- 
clusion that this is the so-called Common and not Sibbald’s Rorqual 
(B. sibbaldii J. E. Gray), the only one of the Balenopteride with 
which it could be possibly confounded. In this latter the baleen is 
entirely of a deep rich black. The most striking peculiarity of this 
huge creature was the very wonderful deep longitudinal plaits or 
plicze on the under surface curving from chin to vent in symmetrically 
disposed lines, resembling, as much as anything else, bars of white 
Soap, two inches in width on the surface, and so closely placed that 
June 1802, 
