SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRLTLSH SEAS. 89 



Sir T. Browne about the Sperm Whale cast on shore at Yarmouth, but the 

 actual date of the occurrence is not given. Since these ancient records, many- 

 others have occurred at intervals, singly or in small parties, on various parts 

 of the coast; the last instance, I believe, being in July, 1S71, when one was 

 stranded on the shore of the Isle of Skye. 



Of the osteology of the Sperm Whale, Professor Flower has given an 

 exhaustive description in a paper published in the ' Transactions ' of the 

 Zoological Society, vol. vi., and of its habits a very interesting account is 

 given by Thomas Beale, who, in the capacity of surgeon on board ships 

 employed in the South Sea fishery, had unusual opportunities of observing 

 this remarkable animal. He published a book entitled ' The Natural History 

 of the Sperm Whale,' to which I am largely indebted for what I shall have 

 to say about this species. 



The colour of the Sperm Whale is black above and grey beneath, the 

 colours gradually shading into each other. The full-grown male is about 

 sixty feet long ; the females are much smaller and more slender than the 

 males. The head, which constitutes more than one-third of the whole of the 

 animal, presents a very remarkable appearance, the truncated form of the 

 snout looking as though it were cut off at right-angles to the body : at the 

 upper angle is situated the single blow-hole. The juncture of the head with 

 the body is the thickest portion, and the body decreases little in size till the 

 " hump," which is situated in the place of the dorsal fin, is reached ; from this 

 point it rapidly diminishes to the tail. The flukes of the tail are from twelve 

 to fourteen feet in breadth, and the two flippers each about six feet long. 

 The under jaw is pointed, and about two feet shorter than the upper; it is 

 furnished with about twenty-five large conical teeth on each side ; but the 

 number is not constant, nor is it always the same on each side. In the upper 

 jaw are no visible teeth, but those of the lower jaw shut into corresponding 

 depressions in the upper. The tongue is small, and, like the lining of the 



