BOTTLE-NOSED WHALE. 
51 
Its capture was thus noticed in one of the Belfast newspapers, the Banner 
of Ulster, on Friday, Oct. 31, 1845 : — 
‘ A Whale in Belfast Lough . — On the morning of Wednesday last [29th Oc- 
tober, 1845] the services of the coast-guard stationed atCultra Point were called 
into active requisition by the appearance of — not a smuggler — but something 
* very like a whale,’ ploughing the waters a few hundred yards from the pier. 
* * * * Without loss of time a boat was manned by four or five of the 
coast-guard armed with harpoon, cutlass, carbine, and hatchet, resolved to make 
the stranger pay dearly for his visit. * * * After a good deal of man- 
oeuvring the men succeeded in bringing their boat alongside the enemy, and 
then commenced their assault upon him without mercy * * * and after 
a little show of opposition he attempted to make off, but his endeavours were 
fruitless. After receiving two or three shots, and a good many strokes with the 
harpoon, a grappling-iron was thrown over him and the boat was rowed shore- 
wards amid the huzzas of the spectators, with the poor whale vanquished and 
weltering in his blood, which dyed the waters ; and soon the retreating tide left 
him high and dry upon the beach. * * * It exhibited great tenacity of life, 
having survived six hours after being brought to land, though cut and hacked in 
an extreme degree. * * * On Wednesday and yesterday crowds of persons 
flocked from this town and other places to see it, where it lies on the shore at Cultra.” 
I was absent from home at the time, but my friend Mr. James Bryce, 
F. G. S., ever active and energetic, hastened to the beach where the animal 
was lying, took the measurements of it in detail, and subsequently repeated 
them under more favourable circumstances in the yard, in the town of 
Belfast, to which the animal was brought for exhibition, and where it at- 
tracted a large number of visitors for several days. Mr. Bryce had at this 
time careful drawings made of the Hyperoodon by his relative Mr. It. 
Young, which, together with his own notes, have been kindly placed in 
my hands. I happened to return home just in time to see the animal be- 
fore it was cut up on the 8th of November. It is a male. Mr. Bryce’s 
description is as follows : — 
Feet Inches 
Length, measured in a straight line from snout to tail 
- measured along the dorsal curve 
Height, greatest 
Girth, greatest 11 
Breadth of forehead 3 
Length of rostrum or snout 
of mouth to rictus 1 
Depth of each jaw at point 
Eye from point of snout 3 
Blow-hole, from point of snout (following dorsal profile) . 3 
, in length (slightly crescentic points directed towards j 
the head : it and the eyes in the same vertical plane) 
Pectoral fins from base of snout 
fins, space between them .... 
fins in length, from base at upper side to point 
■ fins in breadth 
•1 
Dorsal fin distant from caudal fin, estimated from a straight line ) g 
drawn from snout to tail j 
Dorsal fin, length at base 1 
fin in height (points backward) 1 
Caudal fin, greatest length 1 
fin, greatest breadth 5 
fin, greatest thickness 
Aperture anterior to vent in length 1 
of vent in length 
7 
0 
11 
6 
3 
0 
6 
