I813.J 



New South Wales. 



51 



content, and materially checked all enterprise in building, has 

 lately been rescinded. Many settlers have been sent out from 

 this country by governmentj to whom grants of land, sometimes 

 to a large amount, have been made; and in many instances their 

 want of capital, of character, and agricultural knowledge, have 

 exposed them to difficulties on their arrival, and excited com- 

 plaints against them for misconduct. Your committee are glad 

 to learn that greater precautions are now taken in the selectioa 

 of these persons than appears formerly to have been the case. 

 None are allowed to go out as free settlers unless they can prove 

 themselves to be possessed of sufficient property to establish 

 themselves there without the assistance of government, and who 

 can produce the most satisfactory testimonials and recommenda- 

 tion from persons of known respectability ; the person allowed 

 to go is then recommended to the Governor, to whose discretioa 

 it is left to make what grant of land he may think expedient. 

 The form of the answer which is given to all applicants, and one 

 of the letters of recommendation, upon the model of which they 

 are generally drawn, are to be found in the appendix. Your com- 

 mittee wish, however, to suggest that it ought to be made a prin- 

 ciple, in selecting these persons, to give the preference to those 

 who have been previously accustomed to agricultural pursuits. 



(To be concluded in our next.) 



Article VIII, 



Account of the Balcena Adystketus, or Great Northern or 

 Greenland IVhale,^ By Mr. W. Scoresbyjun. M.W,S. 



(Illustrated by ail Engraving.) 



The whale, when full grown, is from 50 to 65 feet in length, 

 and from 30 to 40 in circumference, immediately before the 

 fins.f It is thickest a little behind the fms, and from, thence 

 gradually tapers towards the tail, and slightly towards the neck. 

 It is cylindrical from the neck until near about the junction of 

 the tail and body, where it becomes ridged. 



The head has a triangular shape. The bones of the head are 

 very porous, and full of a fine kind of oil. When the oil is 

 drained out, the bone is so ii^t as to swim in water. The jaw- 



* Frem the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, vol. i. p. 578. 



f It is said that the whale was formerly much larger than tt is at present, 

 being sometimes lOG or 120 feet long: but the accuracy of this statement is to 

 be questioned ; for the largest I ever heard of being caught did not exceed 70 

 feet in length ; and this vras reckoned avery uncommon individual. Of about 

 200 which I have seen taken, not one measured ^5 fe^t m length, although 

 2nany of them were full grown. 



