60 CETACEA. 



and J. Fitz-Henry Townsend, Esqs., respecting a whale which got amongst 

 the rocks of Glandor harbour in the summer of 1844 and was taken. 



Major Walker (the Lodge, Kyle, Enniscorthy) wrote me on 28 July, 

 1846, that a friend (^Ir. Howlin) and his son who sailed in their yacht 

 to Uunmore at the mouth of "NYaterford harbour in the summer of 1844, 

 told him on their return that the people were exhibiting a small Avhale 

 on the shore, and that the white belly was all in longitudinal stripes or 

 plates. On looking to Bell's Cetacea we concluded (Major "W. remarks) 

 that it must be the Rorqual. 



" A whale caug;ht on the western coast of Ireland. — General Thomson of the 

 Little Killeries, Cunnemara, has killed a large whale sixty-five feet long and 

 twenty-four feet broad, having a large fin on the hack about ten feet from the 

 tail."— A^. Whiff, Oct. 3, 1846. 



" A Whale caught in Stranoford Lough. — We have received the follow- 

 ing from a correspondent: — On Wednesday last, a whale, which is full)' 'M) feet 

 long, got stranded on Ringhaddy Sound. It has a Jin on the back, totvards the 

 tail, risiiiff about ticelve inches. The tail is, as near as I could calculate, about 

 six feet broad. Before the tide had quite left the creature, a man drove a crow- 

 bar into one of its eyes. This caused it to writhe in agony, and drive mud, 

 stones, and water to a prodigious height, completely drenching the individual 

 who inflicted the wound upon it. Sliorlly afterwards several balls were fired 

 into its head ; and a stick, three feet long and as thick as a man's wrist, was 

 totally hidden in one of its blowers." — N. Whig, July 1, 1843. 



Dr. Gordon, who had been aware of the capture of the whale referred 

 to in the last paragraph, informed me in 1846 that he had obtained some 

 of the whalebone and ribs of it — one piece of the former in his possession 

 was 15i inches long, of solid matter — 18 inches to tip of hair like bristles. — It 

 was 6 inches in breadth at the base. The ribs measured 5 feet in length. 



All the species of Cetacea yet known as Irish (with the exception of 

 Physeter Tursio) are figured in Bell's British Quacbupeds, and all (with 

 the exception of Physeter Tursio and Dclphinus Tursio) are likewise illus- 

 trated in the Naturalist's Library, Volume on Whales. 



The crania not figured in the former work, viz. those of Delphinus Del- 

 pJiis, Phocana Orca, P. Melas, and Balcenoptera Boops, will be found in 

 Cuv. Oss. Foss., and those of the first and third of these species are also 

 represented in Fred. Cuv. Hist. Cetaces. 



From the preceding notices it appears that even the larger Cetacea oc- 

 cur on the Irish coasts not imfrequently. I do not however consider as 

 certain any species of which the measurements have not been given, so 

 as to show the relative proportions of the diff"erent parts of the body, or 

 which have not come under the actual examination of the Zoologist ; and 

 unfortunately for science such investigations are seldom permitted, as the 

 captors generally commence at once to cut into theu" victims. It is to be 

 hoped that naturalists will for the future attend more to these animals. 



