1S60.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 451 



The following highly interesting communication, regarding the 

 Great Rorqual of the Indian Seas, has been kindly communicated by 

 the Hon. Sir H. Bartle Frere. 



M The Indian Rorqual is very common still in the seas off the coast 

 of Arabia and Mekran, Scind, Cutch, Kattywar ; and the Rorqual 

 fisbery is still one of the many strings which a Yankee captain trading 

 on those coasts is apt to have to his bow. During the calm weather 

 from September to February these ' Whales' are very constantly seen 

 by any vessel between Bhoy and Kurrachee ; the captains of coasting 

 steamers told me they saw them almost every voyage at that time 

 of the year. I have myself seen them twice in the few trips I have 

 made from Bombay to Scind, once very close, — and remarked the 

 large dorsal fin. They are also not unfrequently seen from Manora 

 (the entrance to Kurrachee Port) in a very calm afternoon in the 

 autumn, their black bodies, and jets of breath being visible with a 

 glass in the offing when there is a bright light on the water from the 

 afternoon sun. I have notes of three ' Whales' having come ashore, 

 two early in our tenure of Scind, and one while I was there. We 

 found him out by the stench from his carcase, and on going to the 

 spot (a few miles from Kurrachee) found him stranded and half 

 devoured by the Hyaenas, Jackals, and Sharks, many of which 

 were tugging at portions of the carcase which floated. We collected 

 most of the bones, and sent them to the Kurrachee museum, whence 

 I will get a photograph of them, and if possible a few of the bones, 

 which are frequently found on that coast. John Macleod, whom you 

 may perhaps know by name as an amateur naturalist, calculated the 

 length of the ' AVhale' we found as about 65 or 70 ft. ; but it was in 

 fragments, and nothing to lead to identification but the bones." — 



derably eroded, and a few of them had been shed, but without the tips of any 

 of the permanent teeth appearing. The number of milk-teeth shewing above 



6—6. 

 the gum would seem to have been jz — r-.. In the skeleton of the newly born 



voung, there had been a series of at least 12 on each side above, and more below ; 



7—7 

 but I can only give the former number as in situbus veris. Teeth of adult o q 



In the newly born young, the atlas and axis vertebrae are already partially join- 

 ed, the other cervical vertebra? being still separate : in the adult the series ai-e 

 anchylosed into one mass, the whole of these being united into a single obtuse 

 peak above. 



