PIKE-HEADED WHALE. Class IV. 



feet eight inches from the end of which were 

 two spout-holes, separated by a thin division ; 

 the eyes small. The pectoral fins five feet 

 long, and one and a half broad ; on the back, 

 about eight feet and an half from the tail, in 

 lieu of a back fin, was a hard horny protu- 

 berance ; the tail was nine feet and a half 

 broad ; the belly was uneven, and formed into 

 folds running lengthways ; the skin extremely 

 smooth and bright; that on the back black; 

 that on the belly white. 



This species takes its name from the shape of 

 its nose, which Dale observes " is like that of 

 the Pike fish." 



[A whale, probably of this species, which 

 was stranded in October J 808 on the banks of 

 the Forth near the town of Alloa, has been par- 

 ticularly described by Mr. Neill in the Memoirs 

 of the Wernerian Society, p. 201. Its length was 

 forty-three feet; its greatest circumference twenty 

 feet ; the dorsal fin, or rather horny protuberance, 

 was of a triangular shape, blunt in front, and 

 sloping to a thin edge behind, its height thirty 

 inches ; it was placed about twelve feet from 

 the extremity of the tail. The under jaw was 

 fourteen feet in length, and rather longer and 

 wider than the upper ; in the latter were two 

 rows of short horny lamincE or whalebone, of a 

 dark color, shading to a greenish white in the 



