THE EXTINCT MAMMALS OF LAKELAND xlvii 



Order GET A CEA . Fam. BA L JEN OP TEBIDJE. 



COMMON RORQUAL. 



Balcenoptera musculus (L. ). 



Although there is no evidence of any Finner Whale having 

 been stranded in recent times upon our coast, yet it would be 

 unwise to ignore the fact that Sir William Turner has referred 

 a caudal vertebra, from the Silloth excavations, to Balcenoptera 

 musculus. 1 In this connection mention may be made of a 

 notable find in Morecambe Bay. Some few years ago, after a 

 heavy gale, which caused some change in the sands of the 

 estuary, a local fisherman discovered the remains of a large 

 animal imbedded in a thick deposit of clay near Ulverston. 

 Having with great labour extracted these bones from their 

 resting-place, the fisherman carted them home and showed 

 them to a reverend doctor of divinity, who was then residing 

 in the neighbourhood. This gentleman unhesitatingly pro- 

 nounced the bones to be those of a Mammoth. As such they 

 were exhibited at Ulverston some days later, and attracted 

 much attention. Some time afterwards a single vertebra fell 

 into the hands of Mr. W. Duckworth, who sent me a sketch of 

 it. The Mammoth then resolved itself into a Whale of the 

 present family. 



Order GET AGE A. Fam. DELPHINIDJE. 



THICK-TOOTHED GRAMPUS. 



Pseudorca crassidens. 



There can be no doubt that this rare cetacean has once occurred 

 in Lakeland, although the evidence regarding it leaves us in 

 doubt as to whether it was recent or in a fossil state. It was 

 found about the year 1850 at Cockermouth, and was probably 

 represented by a recent jaw. If we remember the tastes of 

 the epicures of the seventeenth century, we shall be tempted 

 to surmise that the animal was sent to Cockermouth Castle 

 from the neighbouring coast as an acceptable addition to the 

 larder of that establishment. But there is no positive proof of 

 1 Proc. Byl. Phys. Soc, vol. viii. p. 336. 



