1859.] On tlie Great Rorqual of the Indian Ocean. 483 



They are, nevertheless, so far from being rare, indeed the sight 

 of a shoal of these huge animals is so familiar a spectacle to mariners, 

 that to this very circumstance — combined with the fact of their 

 being of little commercial value — may be attributed the extraordinary 

 absence of such memorial. Had the appearance of a shoal (' schule' 

 or ' school' in nautical language) of enormous Whales in the Arabian 

 Sea or Bay of Bengal been a phenomenon of unusual occurrence, 

 it would unquestionably have been recorded from time to time. 



From reliable information which I have obtained, I am enabled 

 to state, with confidence, that they are still occasionally observed 

 within the Persian Gulf, — rarely however in shoals, but generally 

 one or two stragglers at a time. It may be concluded, therefore, 

 that a shoal of them may yet be now and then seen off the coast 

 of Mekran, at the head of the Arabian Sea a little further to the 

 east, where Nearchus and his fleet encountered them ; and that a 

 carcass may stilL occasionally be stranded on the same rarely visited 

 coast, and the bones even yet be applied to like purposes by the 

 scanty fish-eating population of that inhospitable woodless region. 



It appears, from much enquiry I have made on the subject, of 

 competent observers, that only one species of Whale is met with 

 in these seas, and all accounts agree that it is a ' Finner,' ' Fin-back,' 

 1 Kazor-back,' * Pike-whale,' or Rorqual (Baljenoptera), of enormous 

 size. I cannot learn that a ' Hunch-back' (Megaptera, of Gray) has 

 been observed north of the equator. A.n observant nautical friend 

 writes word that " the Whale most generally seen in and about the 

 Bay of Bengal, often in numerous herds, exhibits the dorsal fin ; at 

 least," he adds, "all that have come under my observation, and if 

 my memory serves me correctly, the dorsal fin is about one-third or a 



the coast. I saw some of the vertebra) and ribs about three years ago : last 

 year, another, 90 ft. long, got among the reefs at Quilon, and was murdered by 

 some hundreds of natives with guns, spears, axes, &c, and was cut up and eaten 

 (salted and dried as well as fresh). The Roman Catholic fishermen of the coast 

 pronounced it ' first chop beef.' The Maldives and Seychelles are said to be 

 the head-quarters of the whalers who seek for these Whales. I am sorry I never 

 noticed the jaw-bones sufficiently, for I saw them on the beach. We have the 

 Dugong on the coast, and Porpoises come up the back-waters in March when 

 they are salt, but the Susu I do not think is known here." 



