366 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
the Sound between Lismore, Mull, and the mainland. The fisher- 
men were at first afraid to approach it, hut as, after a few days, 
the animal became less active in its movements, they sallied forth 
in boats, and inflicted severe wounds with harpoons and other 
weapons. The animal was then secured, and towed ashore in 
Dunstaffnage Bay, close to the ruins of the Castle. It was said to 
have been about 60 feet long, and possessed a very bulky head, with 
a square snout. It was at once seen to be very different in its form 
and appearance from the large whales which usually visit our shores; 
but it was not until an oily fluid, which flowed out of a wound near 
the snout, and congealed on the surface of the water, was recognised 
to be spermaceti, that the character and value of the animal was 
determined. A considerable quantity of spermaceti was obtained 
from the great cavity in the head, and the blubber yielded a large 
amount of oil. I could learn nothing definite as to the sex. 
The lower jaw was preserved as a relic in Dunstaffnage Castle, 
and, in the garden of one of the hotels in Oban, I met with a caudal 
vertebra, which was said to have belonged to this animal. 
When I saw the jaw it was much injured. Not only were 
all the teeth lost, but the symphysial ends of both halves were 
broken off, and the expanded articular portion of the right half 
sawn off and removed. It is to be feared, if some care be not taken 
to preserve the fragments which remain, that in a few years all 
trace of this rare and interesting specimen will have disappeared. 
From the left mandible some measurements were obtained which 
may give an approximation to the dimensions of the bone. The 
length was 149 inches; but as the anterior end was absent — as, 
indeed, only the sockets of sixteen teeth remained — this measure- 
ment falls several inches short of the original length of the bone. 
The articular end was expanded, and possessed a vertical diameter 
of 22 inches. On its inner face was the very large opening of the 
dental canal. Close to the junction of the articular and dentary 
parts of the mandible was a well-marked constriction, where the 
bone measured only 8 inches in breadth. The breadth of the 
alveolar edge of the jaw, about its middle, was 4J inches. In its 
general form the mandible was broad and thin at its articular 
part, then constricted, beyond which it dilated, and then gradually 
tapered away to the anterior extremity. 
