54 CETACEA. 



The following paragraph which appeared in the Derry Sentinel (Janu- 

 ary, 1842), may have related to this species : — 



"Whale caught at Newtown-Cunningham.— A bottle-nosed whale, about 

 twelve feet in length, was caught last week at the embankment near Newtown- 

 Cunningham. It has been purchased by Captain Coppin for the purpose of ex- 

 tracting the oil, and we believe may be seen at his establishment on the Strand 

 road." 



The Spermaceti Whale, Physeter macrocephalas, Linn., 



Has been taken on the ocean coasts of the island. 



In the Philosophical Transactions for 1695-6, Dr. Molyneux remarks, 



" Nor is the kind of whale-fish that * * affords the true spermaceti a 

 stranger to the coast of Ireland that respects America. This we may properly, 

 I think, * * call the Cetus dentatiis, from its large solid white teeth fixed only 

 in the lower jaw, to distinguish it from the species that gives the whalebone 



* * of which kind likewise there have been three or four stranded m my time, 

 but on the eastern coast of this coimtry that regards England. 



There have been three of this kind \_Cet7(s dentatns'] taken to my knowledge in 

 the space of the six years, all on the western coast of this country ; one near 

 Coleraine in the County of Antrim, another about Shipharbour in the County 

 of Donegal, and a third hi Aug., 1691, 71 feet long (exceeding that discovered 

 by Clusius 19 feet), towards Ballyshannon, where Lough Erne discharges its 

 waters into the western ocean." Vol. xix. p. 508. 



In Smith's History of Cork, published in 1750, it is observed that a whale, 



" which I take by the account I heard of it to be the Balcena major, or sper- 

 maceti whale, Ray, Synop. Pise. 15, was a few winters ago cast on shore near 

 Castlehaven, and towards 60 feet long." Vol. ii. p. 299. 



Arthur Young in his Tour in Irpland, made in the years n'76 — 1779, 

 remarks that, 



" In all the bays on the coast [of Donegal] in March and April there are 

 many whales, the bone sort; they appear on the coast in February, and go off to 

 the northward the beginning of May ; sometimes they are in great plenty, and 

 in November to February there are many spermaceti *'hales ; * this is what 

 induced Thomas Nesbit, Esq., of Kilmacredon, to enter into a scheme for estab- 

 lishing a fishery on the coast, and in executing it was the inventor of the gun- 

 harpoon. Mr. Nesbit first used the gun-harpoon for killing whales in the year 

 1756 * * * [In this year] one whale was caught by the hand-harpoon 



* * * In 1761, with the gun-harpoon, he killed three whales and got them 

 all ; after which he every year killed some, except one year, when he killed forty- 

 two sun-fish t in one week, each of which yielded from half a ton to a ton of oil. 

 Mr. Nesbit has suice given it up, J not from want of success in the mode of taking 

 the whales, but from being put by his partners, for want of knowledge in the 

 business, to useless expenses. From many experiments he brought the opera- 

 tion to such perfection, that for some years he never missed a whale, nor failed of 



* At the beginning of August, 1845, a large whale was seen by Mr. Hyndman 

 and others between Horn Head and Tory Island ofl" Donegal. 



t Basking shark. Selachus maximus, Cuv. 



:J: The following paragraphs appeared in 1776, copied in 1839, from a book 

 of extracts made by Dr. Aquila Smith; — "A large Whale. By letters from 

 the Co. Donegal we have an account that Mr. Thos. Nesbit killed and brought 

 into port, the 11th inst., a large whale; and as many others now appear on the 

 coast, there is reason to hope for a successful season in that fishery." — Freeman's 

 Journal, May 17, 1776. 



"We hear from Port in the Co. of Donegal that Mr. Thos. Nesbit had 

 brought in a whale there which measured 63 feet in length." — Freeinan's 

 Jourmil, June 10, 1776. 



