BOTTLE-NOSED WHALE. 
49 
felt a scientific interest in the spectacle, had the opportunity of seeing the 
animal in a perfect state. During the progress of cutting up, on the day 
after its death, the body was still warm and smoking. 
To the intelligent farmer whose property this whale became I showed 
all the figures of Cetacea in Mr. Bell’s work, when he at once, from the 
narrow elongated snout, and head arising abruptly from it, identified the 
specimen with the Hyperoodon, objecting only to the snout not being 
represented so long comparatively as in the real animal. To another 
respectable farmer who had got its head I exhibited these figures, and he 
also singled out the Hyperoodon, considering the figure of Dale’s speci- 
men as more characteristic of the general form of the animal than that 
of Hunter’s : the tail of the latter, however, being the better liked. The 
gape or opening of the mouth was remarked to be thus or “ like 
the letter f” teeth none, the snout shaped like a bottle : it was similarly 
described by our first informant. In a newspaper paragraph respecting 
this whale it was stated that “ the blubber produced 140 gallons of oil, 
which were computed to be worth £20 sterling.” 
In connexion with the occurrence of this Hyperoodon on the coast of 
Down, a novel and interesting fact is to be recorded — that there evidently 
was a migration or simultaneous movement of these Cetacea towards the 
British shores during the last autumn, several individuals having within 
a very few weeks been obtained in England and Scotland, as well as Ire- 
land ; but all upon a limited range of coast bounding the Irish Sea and 
its vicinity. The first capture known to me is that of the individual 
already recorded. In the Northern Whig, published at Belfast on the 
26th September, it was stated that “ A bottle-nosed whale, 20 feet long, 
■was last week left on the beach at Flimby, near Cockermouth.” In the 
Belfast News-Letter of October 1st appeared the following notice, — 
“ A whale captured near Liverpool. — On Tuesday last a whale w r as left 
by the receding tide on East Hoyle bank, and speedily captured by the 
fishermen. Its length is 24 feet ; its girth round the centre of the body 
13 feet.” * Although this is not called the bottle-nosed species, it seems 
to me a fair presumption so to consider the specimen, as its dimensions 
accord with the other individuals taken about the same time, and of which 
one was obtained on the coast of the adjacent county of Cumberland. In 
the Belfast Commercial Chronicle of October 21st was this para- 
graph, copied from the Stranraer Advertiser : — 
“ Capture of Whales in Lochryan . — On Tuesday morning last, 15th of October, f 
a very unusual appearance presented itself in Kirkcolm. Two monsters of the 
deep, of the bottle-nosed description of whale, had come round the Scaur and 
embayed themselves ; the receding tide swept its treacherous waters from under 
them, and finding themselves grounded their mighty exertions were truly terrific, 
yet unavailing for their extrication. Mr. Robertson of Clendry was the first who 
took notice of the errant strangers, and arming himself and retainers with pitch- 
* In connexion with this paragraph it was observed — “ On Friday two young 
whales were got in the Clyde — the one on the beach at Roseneath, the other 
above Dumbarton or West Ferry.” Unfortunately no particulars are given that 
would lead to a knowledge of the species. About the same tinge it was men- 
tioned in the newspapers that a whale proceeding southward had passed close 
to one of the packets plying between Holyhead and Dublin. 
f About four weeks previous to this time a friend informed me that upon 
two successive days a whale (which he saw) appeared off Ballantrae (Ayrshire) 
some miles north of Lochryan ; on the second day it was about two miles to the 
south of where it was seen on the preceding, and was still advancing southwards. 
E 
