88 



SEJZS AND WHALES OF THE BRITISH SEAS. 



would give 1646 as the date of the Wells specimen; and in December of that 

 year, according- to Booth's "History of Norfolk," published in 1781 (vol. ix. 

 p. 33), "A great Whale was cast on the shore here [at Holme-next-the-Sea], 

 the wind blowing strongly at the north-west, 57 feet long, the breadth of the 

 nose-end eight feet, from nose-end to the eye 15 1 feet ; the eyes about the 

 same bigness as those of an ox, the lower chap closed and shut about four 

 feet short of the upper ; this lower chap narrow towards the end, and therein 

 were 46 teeth like the tusks of an elephant; the upper one had no teeth, but 

 sockets of bones to receive the teeth: two small fins only, one on each side, 



Fig. 19. Skeleton of the Sperm Whale (after Flower), 

 s, Spermaceti Cavity ; n, Nasal Passage, in dotted line ; b. Blow-hole. 



and a short small fin on the back ; it was a male . . . . ; the breadth of 

 the tail, from one outward tip to the other, was 13I feet. The profit made 

 of it was £21] 63. 7d,, and the charge in cutting it up and managing it came 

 to ;^ioo or more." It seems probable that a " school" got bewildered in the 

 shallow waters of the Wash, and that the individual of which Booth gives 

 such an excellent description, formed one of the same party as the eight or 

 nine mentioned by Sir T. Browne. In May, 1652, Mr. Arthur Bacon writes to 



