554 CETACEA. 



pieces by tlie tidal wave or been buried in deep sand, and that, beyond what had 

 loeen already recovered, there was little probability of saving more. However, 

 Major Duff had instructed one of his assistants, Mr. Duke, to proceed at once to the 

 spot where the Whale was stranded, to obtain as much information as he could on 

 the subject of its size, &c., and to bring away whatever bones or other parts of 

 the animal he could secure. 



In a letter from Major Duff, dated 3rd August, I was informed that Mr. Duke 

 had found the animal still almost intact and had been able to bring away some of 

 the bones of the head, portions of the skin, and some " curious horny scales with 

 fringed ends ;" that he had measured the creature and ascertained its length to 

 have been 24^ cubits (37 feet), and its girth as near as could be estimated 12 cubits 

 or 18 feet. As the animal had been drifted about by the tide, and was unfortunately 

 lying on its back, Mr. Duke was unable to determine whether or not it had a blow- 

 hole, a point regarding which, as also as to the set of the animal's tail. Major Duff 

 had asked him to take particular notice, in order to satisfy himself as to its being 

 really a Whale, because the natives in the neighboiirhood had given most contradic- 

 tory statements, ' some saying that it spouted and others that it did not.' 



The animal was in a high state of decomposition, and it was with the utmost 

 difficulty that Mr. Duke got people to assist him to recover the bones ; moreover, 

 the weather was extrem.ely bad, and the wide inlet was by no means safe for boats. 

 Notwithstanding the great difficulties of such an undertaking as this in a tropical 

 chmate, Mr. Duke was successful in preserving the skull of this Whale almost entire 

 and of securing nearly all the vertebrae, a portion of one limb and some other bones 

 now to be enumerated in detail, as also a few flakes of balene and a portion of the skin. 



The skull (PL XLIV), the vertebrae, the bones of the extremity which have 

 been preserved, the short balene with its fringed edge, all furnish evidence that 

 this Whale was a BalcBnoptera ; but unfortunately there is nothing on record 

 regarding the presence or absence of a dorsal fin. 



The leading characteristics of the skull, PI. XLIV, as compared with the skulls 

 of known Balmnoptera, are the great length of the maxillary portion and the little 

 downward shelving of the upper surface of the maxillae. In these points it is some- 

 what resembled by Balcenoptera rostrata, but the beak of this eastern Whale is 

 relatively longer and more pointed than in the Whale of the North Sea, and the 

 downward shelving of its maxillaries is much less. It is also distinguished 

 from B. rostrata by the great length of its temporal fossa, in which feature it is 

 approached by B. musculus, a Whale which, on the other hand, has a very much 

 shorter and deeper beak, and in these respects resembles somewhat the skull of 

 the Javan Whale B. schlegeli. 



There can be no doubt about this Whale being closely allied to B. schlegeli, 

 but I cannot reconcile the form of the skull with the figure of the skuU of the 

 type given by Professors Van Beneden and Gervais. I have reproduced three 

 drawings taken from a photograph of the skull (PL XLIV, figs. 1, 2, 8), and it 

 wiU be observed that although it bears a strong resemblance to the skull of 



