rOEEIGX INTELLIGENCE. 
99 
been seen by any naturalist ? Is it the Soutliern whale in which the 
Dutch whalers have thoucjht they have recognized their ' North- Caper ' ? 
Has it disappeared since this fishery was established, like so many other 
kinds which have been annihilated within historic times r* There is 
need of facts to dissipate these doubts ; the best arguments do not suf- 
fice. But can one ever hope to find them for these delicate and dif- 
ficult questions? In these uncertainties, zoologists, not knowing whe- 
ther to think Cuvier right or the Iceland fishermen, were in great com- 
motion some years since in respect to an event which happened in the 
Gulf of Gascony. This was in January, 1854. It is at this period of 
the year that the ancient whales arrive there regularly to take their 
winter station. A mother-whale, accompanied by its cub, made its appear- 
ance at St. Sebastian one day in January, and fortunately the young 
whale was captured. The Museum of Pampeluna made the acquisition of 
it. Eschricht heard this news at Copenhagen ; nothing passed in the 
world of whales that he was not informed of. ' It is my Biscay whale,' 
said he ; ' the species still exists.' He trembled at the idea that the trea- 
sure might escape hira. He arrived at Louvain nearly at the same time as 
the letter b}^ which he informed me of the news ; announced to the Insti- 
tute of Fraaee the motive of his passage to Paris ;t arrived at Pampeluna, 
made his way at once to the coast, and buried himself in the midst of the shore 
in the study of the bones of the head and of the vertebrae of this precious 
relic. The victory was his. This whale diflered completely from that of 
the North.;}; It was really a remnant of those ancient legions which once 
on a time visited these latitudes in numerous bands, and which have since 
deserted these places. On our coast the whales stranded since the begin- 
ning of this century have been far from numerous, and we could easily 
enumerate them. Several years since, . . M. de Selys-Longchamps men- 
tioned them in his Belgian ' Fauna.' There are but two balenoptera ; 
the one of Kesscls, found dead at sea in 1827 by the Ostend fishermen, § 
* "We kuow that since the historic period many species have abandoned the centre of 
Europe, and that others have also completely disappeared. . . . Tlie reindeer and 
elk have qnittcd the interior of Europe since the extinction of the mammoths. The 
Dodo and the AIca impennis have midoubtedly completely disappeared. We are foiiu- 
nately not altogether certain of the latter. It is behoved that the Ri/thina Stdleri, the 
singular sirenian of the Behring Sea, is equally lost; but we have had great satisfaction 
in seeing that the Museum of St. Petersburg has received a complete skeletou. Nord- 
maun, ' Paliiontologie Sued-Russlands,' Helsingl'ors, 1859-60, p. 328. 
t ' Comptcs Rendus de I'Academie des Sciences,' sitting July 12th, 1858. 
% ' Snr les Baleines franches du Golfe de Biscaye,' in Coniptes Readus, 1860. In a 
letter dated from Copenhagen, Eschricht had the kiuduess to inform me of the result of 
his researches on the difference of these two species of whales. " The skeleton of Pam- 
peluna has entirely occupied me," he wrote on the 18th May. " It is the most curious 
of any that I have met. It is nearly mounted, and the enormous difference between it 
and the Mi/sf 'tcetus surpasses all I had e.Npccted before my sojourn at Pampeluna. Ti- 
gure to yourself," he added, " that it is not more developed than the skeleton of a Mj/s- 
ticetus of less than a year ; the ossification of the vertebrae has not advauced beyond 
the transverse apophyses ; and the arches, which are not even united on both sides, are still 
separated from the body, whilst the vertebral column is as large as that of a M^sticetus 
of three years and a half." Eschricht, ' Developpemcnt du questiouuaire relatif aux Ce- 
taces,' in ' Actes de la Societe Liuiieenne de Bordeaux,' t. xxii., 4me livr. 
§ Van Breda, ' Eenige Bijsonderhedcn omtrent den "Walrisch die den 5 November 
1827 bij Ostende gestrand is,' in Algemeine Koust en Letterbode, 1827, 2e vol. 
Vanderlindeu, Bibl. Incd. Nat. et Etrang., t. v., 1028. — ' Bydragen tot de Natu- 
ralische "\Veteu=ch.,' 4de deel, 1829. — Messag. des Sciences, 1329. Du Bai", ' Osteogra- 
phie de la Baleiue,' BruxcUes, 1828. 
