BOTTLE-NOSED WHALE. 51 



Its capture was thus noticed in one of the Belfast newspapers, the Banner 

 of Ulster, on Friday, Oct. 31, 1845 : — 



'A Whale in Belfast Lough. — On the morning of Wednesday last [29th Oc- 

 tober, 1845] the services of the coast-guard stationed atCuUra Point were called 

 into active requisition by the appearance of — not a snniggler — but something 

 ' very like a whale,' ploughing the waters a few hundred yards from the pier. 

 * * * * Without loss of time a boat was manned by four or five of the 

 coast-guard armed with harpoon, cutlass, carbine, and hatchet, resolved to make 

 the stranger pay dearly for his visit. * * * After a good deal of man- 

 oeuvring the men succeeded in bringing their boat alongside the enemy, and 

 then commenced their assault upon him without mercy * * * and after 

 a little show of opposition he attempted to make otf, but his endeavours were 

 fruitless. After receiving two or three shots, and a good many strokes with the 

 harpoon, a grappling-iron was thrown over him and the boat was rowed shore- 

 wards amid the huzzas of the spectators, with the poor whale vanquished and 

 weltering in his blood, which dyed the waters ; and soon the retreating tide left 

 him high and dry upon the beach. * * * It exhibited great tenacity of life, 

 having survived six hours after being brought to land, though cut and hacked in 

 an extreme degree. * * * On Wednesday and yesterday crowds of persons 

 flocked from this town and other places to see it, where it lies on the shore at Cultra." 



I was absent from home at the time, but my friend Mr. James Bryce, 

 F. G. S., ever active and energetic, hastened to the beach where the animal 

 was lying, took the measurements of it in detail, and subsequently repeated 

 them under more favourable circumstances in the yard, in the town of 

 Belfast, to which the animal was brought for exhibition, and where it at- 

 tracted a large number of visitors for several days. Mr. Bryce had at this 

 time careful drawings made of the Hyperoodon by his relative ]\Ir. R. 

 Young, which, together with his own notes, have been kindly placed in 

 my hands. I happened to return home just in time to see the animal be- 

 fore it was cut up on the 8th of November. It is a male. Mr. Bryce's 

 description is as follows : — 



Feet Inches 

 Length, measured in a straight line from snout to tail . .20 4 



measured along the dorsal curve .... 2.3 4 



Height, greatest ......... 4 6 



Girth, greatest ......... 116 



Breadth of forehead ......... 3 



Length of rostrum or snout ....... 11 



of mouth to rictus ....... 1 7 



Depth of each jaw at point ....... 4 



Eye from point of snout ........ 3 1 



Blow-hole, from point of snout (following dorsal profile) . 3 9 



, in length (slightly crescentic points directed towards \ r- 



the head : it and the eyes in the same vertical plane) . . ) 

 Pectoral fins from base of snout ...... 50 



fins, space between them 17 



fins in length, from base at upper side to point . 2 2 



fins in breadth ........ 7 



Dorsal fin distant from caudal fin, estimated from a straight line ) o o 



drawn from snout to tail ....... j 



Dorsal fin, length at base ........ 1 7 



fin in height (points backward) ..... 10 



Caudal tin, greatest length . . . . . . .111 



fin, greatest br(>adth ....... 56 



fin, greatest thickness ....... 3 



Aperture anterior to vent in length ..... 10 

 of vent in lensth ....... (J 



U. OF ILL LJB. 



