4 



W. LlLLJEBORG, 



During a colder period e. g. the Northern Whale (Balaena mysticetus) has 

 visited our Scandinavian seas, and during a milder period these waters have 

 doubtless been the resort of more southern species. The time, at which 

 one of the species we have at present under review (Eschrichtius robustus), 

 visited our seas, seems not to have been very distant, and the character 

 of the shells, found in the neighbourhood of the bones, shows that the 

 surrounding water was then such as it is now. We have unfortunately not 

 been able to examine the earth strata at the spot where the other species 

 (Hunterius Svedenborgii) was found, but the epoch, at which the bones were 

 there imbedded, is without question far more ancient; and the structure of 

 the skeleton indicates a nearer relationship with those species, which now 

 belong to the milder seas, and one would accordingly seem justified in assu- 

 ming that the bones were imbedded when the temperature was higher than 

 when the Northern Whale (Balaena mysticehis) was found here, that is to 

 say, not under the so called Ice-period. We may probably attribute it to 

 the period, when the European Marsh-Tortoise (Emys Europaea fossilis) was 

 met with here at least as far north as East Gothland. 



Among the contributions to a more accurate knowledge of the Whale- 

 bone Whales that have been made in later times, we would signalize the 

 following works: "Catalogue of Seals and Whales in British Museum" by 

 J. E. Gray; "Om Nordhvalen (Balaena mysticetus L.)", by D. F. Eschricht 

 and J. Reinhardt in the Royal Danish "Videnskabs-Selskabs" Transactions 

 5 th Series Natural and Mathemat. sciences, 5 th Vol.; and "Notes on the 

 skeletons of Whales in the principal Museums of Holland and Belgium, with 

 descriptions of two species apparently new to science", by W. H. Flower, 

 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 18G4. Also a work 

 small in extent but remarkable for accuracy and fullness of detail: "On a 

 Whale of the Genus Physalus Gray, captured in Orkney", by Robert 

 Heddle, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society 185G, as also "Be- 

 skrifvelse af en ved Lofoten indbjserget Rorhval, Balaenoptera musadus u ,X)y 

 G. 0. Sars, in the Norwegian "Videnskabs Selskabets Forhandlinger" 

 for 1865. 



In the first-named very valuable work of Prof. J. E. Gray (Cata- 

 logue of Seals and Whales &c), based upon the rich materials afforded by 

 the museums of England, France, Holland and Belgium, and a thorough 

 knowledge of all the litterature pertaining to the subject, it has been con- 

 clusively proved, that this group of the Animal kingdom's giants is by no 

 means so destitute of resource of different "forms" or species, as had been 

 previously for the most part supposed, and that the study of the diffe- 



