60 
CETACEA. 
and J. Fitz-Henry Townsend, Esqs., respecting a whale which got amongst 
the rocks of Glandor harbour in the summer of 1844 and was taken. 
Major Walker (the Lodge, Kyle, Enniscorthy) wrote me on 28 July, 
1846, that a friend (Mr. Howlin) and his son who sailed in their yacht 
to Dunmore at the mouth of Waterford harbour in the summer of 1844, 
told him on their return that the people were exhibiting a small whale 
on the shore, and that the white belly was all in longitudinal stripes or 
plates. On looking to Bell’s Cetacea we concluded (Major W. remarks) 
that it must be the Rorqual. 
“ A whale caught on the western coast of Ireland. — General Thomson of the 
Little Killeries, Connemara, has killed a large whale sixty-five feet long and 
twenty-four feet broad, having a large fin on the hack about ten feet from the 
tail.” — N. Whiff, Oct. 3, 1846. 
“ A Whale caught in Strangford Lough. — We have received the follow- 
ing from a correspondent: — On Wednesday last, a whale, which is fully 30 feet 
long, got stranded on Ringhaddy Sound. It has a Jin on the bach , towards the 
tail, rising about twelve inches. The tail is, as near as I could calculate, about 
six feet broad. Before the tide had quite left the creature, a man drove a crow- 
bar into one of its eyes. This caused it to writhe in agony, and drive mud, 
stones, and water to a prodigious height, completely drenching the individual 
who inflicted the wound upon it. Shortly afterwards several balls were fired 
into its head ; and a stick, three feet long and as thick as a man’s wrist, was 
totally hidden in one of its blowers.” — N. Whig, July 1, 1843. 
Dr. Gordon, who had been aware of the capture of the whale referred 
to in the last paragraph, informed me in 1846 that he had obtained some 
of the whalebone and ribs of it — one piece of the former in his possession 
was 15^ inches long, of solid matter — 18 inches to tip of hair like bristles. — It 
was 6 inches in breadth at the base. The ribs measured 5 feet in length. 
All the species of Cetacea yet known as Irish (with the exception of 
Physeter Tursio ) are figured in Bell’s British Quadrupeds, and all (with 
the exception of Physeter Tursio and Delphinus Tursio) are likewise illus- 
trated in the Naturalist’s Library, Volume on Whales. 
The crania not figured in the former work, viz. those of Delphinus Del- 
phis, Phoccenu Orca, P. Melas, and Palcenoptera Poops, will be found in 
Cuv. Oss. Foss., and those of the first and third of these species are also 
represented in Fred. Cuv. Hist. Cetaces. 
From the preceding notices it appears that even the larger Cetacea oc- 
cur on the Irish coasts not unfrequently. I do not however consider as 
certain any species of which the measurements have not been given, so 
as to show the relative proportions of the different parts of the body, or 
which have not come under the actual examination of the Zoologist ; and 
unfortunately for science such investigations are seldom permitted, as the 
captors generally commence at once to cut into their victims. It is to be 
hoped that naturalists will for the future attend more to these animals. 
