REPORT ON MUSEUM WORK 26 1 



collections. One of the greatest needs of the mineral section 

 of the museum is a set of upright centre-cases for large show- 

 specimens, and we hope it may before long be possible to 

 have these made and fitted. 



A piece of work which was far from the ordinary museum 

 routine fell to our lot in February. A whale 45 feet long 

 (a Rudolph i's Rorqual, Balcenoptej-a borealis) was cast ashore 

 to the south of Amble, and after a good deal of trouble we 

 obtained leave to cut out the skeleton. This proved to be a 

 heavy and extremely unsavoury job, with many unforeseen 

 difficulties to be overcome. It involved the removal of fifteen 

 tons of flesh, much of which, either because of its toughness 

 or its putridity, was very difficult to deal with. The bones, 

 too, were very hard to extract from their sheaths, and the 

 skull alone weighed half-a-ton. The actual work on the shore 

 occupied us for about ten days. In spite of its disagreeable 

 nature and the discomforts it entailed it was well worth doing, 

 for a really complete whale's skeleton is very hard to obtain, 

 and in this case we were able to secure all the parts that are 

 usually lost, such as the ear bones, cheek bones, hyoids, 

 chevron bones, and the rudimentary hip bones. Most of the 

 skeleton is being cleaned by burial in a sand pit which we 

 made for the purpose in the museum grounds, but some of the 

 smaller bones are macerating in the usual way in water. We 

 still have before us the very considerable task of mounting the 

 skeleton and suspending it. 



Some minor matters may be briefly mentioned. A few 

 birds have been set up, including an African coly presented 

 by Mr. H. B. Wilson, and a little auk picked up alive during 

 a snowstorm in Grey Street. The pedestal case containing 

 the condor is now in position by the door of the committee 

 room ; the condor's cage in the grounds has been wired in and 

 converted into an aviary for small birds. Apart from the 

 regular school classes on Thursday afternoons, we have had 

 visits from various parties of school children and other people, 

 to whom I have usually given a short talk on some section of 

 the collections. 



