FOUND IN NORFOLK. 33 



ashoare & 2 had yong ones after they were forsaken by 

 ye water. 



A grampus aboue 16 foot long taken at yarmouth 

 [3 or crossed oui\ 4 yeares agoe. 



on the Spermaceti Whale in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, was inspired by a 

 subsequent occurrence of the same kind, for, as appears from the above 

 note, a larger individual, 62 feet long, came ashore at Wells 20 years later, 

 which he says led him to further inquiry. This would indicate about the 

 year 1646 as the date of the latter occurrence, whereas in his third letter 

 to Merrett, written in 1668, he states that it happened "about 12 years 

 ago," or in 1656. There is probably an error in one of these dates. 



Another example seems to have been found at Yarmouth about the year 

 1652, for we find Browne writing in that year for particulars of its "cutting 

 up." (See Appendix B.) 



In the postscript to a letter also in the muniment room at Hunstanton, 

 dated June nth, 1653, written to Sir Hamon le Strange, who had been 

 consulting him professionally, Browne says : " I pray you at your leisure doe 

 mee the honor to informe mee how long agoe the Spermaceti Whale was cast 

 upon your shoare & whether you had any spermm with in any other part 

 butt the head." It will be noticed that in both the letters referred to he is 

 anxious to ascertain in what part of the body the "sperm"' was situated, 

 doubtless for the purpose of confuting the "vulgar conceit" as to the 

 origin of the " sperm " referred to in the second paragraph of his treatise 

 in the Pseudodoxia. His investigations also probably first led to a certain 

 knowledge as to the nature of the food of this animal. 



These, however, although the first to be recorded in this county, were 

 not the first or only occurrences of the kind, for there is in the parish 

 church of Great Yarmouth the base of the skull of a Sperm Whale, used 

 as a chair, for the painting of which a charge of five shillings appears in 

 the churchwardens' accounts for the year 1606 ; many such events in 

 European waters are to be found recorded. 



But the most interesting circumstance with regard to these whales 

 is the statement that " two had yong ones after they were forsaken by the 

 water." This event renders it highly improbable that they were Sperm 

 Whales, for the stragglers of that species which have been met with in our 

 waters, and indeed in the northern seas generally, have been almost 

 invariably solitary males, or, in one or two instances "schools" of young 

 males. In the only instance in which both sexes were found, the school 

 was composed I believe of immature individuals. ( Vide J. Anderson, 

 "Nachrichten von Island, Gronland, und der Strasse Davis," Frantfurt 

 (1747), p. 248.) Moreover, this view is confirmed by a letter which will 

 be found in Appendix B., where the following passage occurs:— "And 

 not only whales, but grampusses have been taken in this Estuarie . . . 



