APPENDIX B. 91 



that Sp. wch was cast upon the shore I doe conceive 

 came out of his nostrells. thus much ffrom him who doth 

 remayne Sir your humble Servant, Arthur Bacon 

 Yarmouth loth May 1652. 



Browne to Dugdale on certain fossil bones. 

 ["Eastern Counties Collectanea," pp. 193-195]. 



The letter referred to in the foot-note on page 33, 

 written by Sir Thomas Browne to Dugdale, and formerly 

 in the possession of the late Mr. Arthur Preston of 

 Norwich, whose collection of manuscripts was dispersed 

 by auction in August, 1888, was printed in a brief-lived 

 and little-known local publication, entitled the " Eastern 

 Counties Collectanea" (1872-3), at page 193. In this 

 letter occurs a passage which confirms the doubt expressed 

 as to the Whales which had young ones after coming on 

 shore at Hunstanton being Sperm Whales. They are 

 expressly said to have been of that sort " which seamen 

 call a Grampus," and as Sir Nicholas le Strange, in a 

 MS. preserved in the Muniment room at Hunstanton, 

 applies the name " Grampus " to an undoubted specimen 

 of Hyperoodon rostratus (as shown both by his description 

 and outline sketch) which came ashore there in the 

 year 1700, I have little doubt that the Cetaceans in 

 question belonged to that species and not to Physiter 

 macrocephalus. 



This letter is interesting also as filling a gap in 

 Wilkin's series and I therefore reproduce it, omitting 

 only occasional learned digressions which do not affect 

 the subject. The original not being available, I have 

 used the copy in the " Collectanea " before mentioned. 



Dugdale, in November, 1658, and again later, had 

 written to Browne, sending him a bone of a " fish which 

 was taken up by Sir Robert Cotton, in digging a pond 

 at the skirt of Conington downe," and asking his 

 opinion thereof. (Wilkin, i., pp. 385 and 390.) 



To the first of these letters Browne replied, under 

 date of the 6th December, 1658, "I receaued the bone 

 of the fish, and shall giue you some account of it when 



