Sept., 1885.] ELLIOTT SOCIETY. 99 



tngs, between fifty aud sixty row boats, aud a few sailing craft started in pur- 

 suit, the whale heving remained in slioal water near Fort Johnson. 



A harpoon was soon lodged in the animal's body from one of the tngs, but 

 this having been found unmanageble, the expedient resort id to was for the tngs 

 to ram the whale with their bows whenever the opportunity offered. The an- 

 imal was thus worried for some time and also received several lance thrusts from 

 the small boats. It bled considerably and was so much weakened by the vari- 

 ous blows and wounds that after an exciting chase of several l.onrs it finally 

 succumbed to its tormentors. During this scene the strength of the whale was 

 exliibited in the lashings of its tail. With a blow ffom this it knocked a door 

 of one of the tugs off of its hinges, and with its back it raised the bow of an- 

 other tug clear out of the water. It made repeated efforts to dive, but the wa- 

 ter being shallow, the movement appeared to the lookers on, who did not real- 

 ize its meaning, as an effort to stand on its head. 



I did not have the opportunity of examining the animal u.ntil the day after 

 its capture, when it was on exhiljition. At a glance I saw that it was a Right 

 "Whale, as the plates of baleen were visible between the lips of the slig''itly 

 opened mouth. It measured in length 40 feet 4 inches, and was perfectly 

 black in color over the entire body. Its otheT important mersurements were, 

 9 ft. vertically through the thickest x>art of the body, with 11 ft. width of tail. 

 As so(m as the exhibition was over the carcase was given to me for the College 

 Miiseum, and was towed to a place of safety a few miles above the City. I t hen 

 proposed to separate the bones from the soft parts without delay, but found the 

 tas]?; impossible, and consequently contented mj^self for the time being with 

 the removal of the baleen, which was drawn out of the mouth on each side in a 

 solid mass, by means of a rope, and cutting out the two eyes which I gave to a 

 mediciil friend. These were 2| inches in diameter, with a very tliiclv sclerotic 

 crat and oval pupils. I was able to satisfy myself ^^'ithout a doubt on this 

 occnsi'^n that the animal was a male. 



I then allowed six weeks to elapse before visiting the carcase again, and du- 

 ring that time its captors had cut away as much of the blubber as they thought 

 would be worthwhile boiling down. This turned out however not to be a pay- 

 ing operation, for it was not sufficientl}^ thick, and it is probable that the ani- 

 mal having suffured from hunger ^ov several days before its capture, much of 

 its fat had in consequence been consumed in sustaining its life. 



The head, ribs and thoracic vertebraB were completely denuded of flesh by 

 this delay, and the other bones were subjected to the ordinaiy process of mace- 

 ration in the course of the following six months. The specimen has since been 

 mounted and attached to the ceiling of the main hall of the Charleston Mu- 

 seum. 



Its measurements in ^he flesh and as a skeleton are as follows : 



Total length in the flesh, .... 40 ft. 4 inclK s, 



skeleton * . . . . 35 " 7 " 



* The difference in length between the animal alive and its slceloton is due to i iio dif- 

 ficulty of proportioning- the intervertebral pads m as to make the two leiigt hs Identical. 



