206 
NOTES ON A COMMON FIN WHALE. 
The epidermis was thin and easily rubbed off ; thus the dark 
pigment it contains may be lost through a little friction and 
parts appear white which in the living animal are black. 
Seeing that the whale was lying on its back I had not a good 
opportunity for studying the dorsal features. The head had a 
very depressed and flattened contour, I should estimate its 
length at about 17 feet. There was not, however, visible any 
external sign of division between the head and the trunk. In 
the position in which the animal lay the back appeared almost 
flat ; in life it would present a regular and depressed curve 
from the snout to the tail-fork, broken only by the prominent 
dorsal fin. The caudal portion of the trunk was much com- 
pressed laterally, and had a proportionately great vertical depth 
— a very characteristic feature of this whale and its immediate 
allies. 
The pectoral fins (flippers) were given off 91 feet behind the 
nose ; they were of moderate length (7 feet as measured along 
their lower edge), lanceolate in shape, and in colour black 
exteriorly and probably interiorly also in the living state.* The 
dorsal fin was set far back on the tail, its commencement and 
termination being respectively 49 feet from the nose and 14 feet 
in front of the tail-fork ; it was prominent, erect, and compressed 
laterally. The horizontal tail-fiu had a considerable breadth of 
union with the hind end of the body. Chie lobe is convex and 
the other concave, thus giving to this fin the characteristic 
screw-shaped contour. Each lobe projected seven feet from the 
body, giving a total span for this powerful organ of propulsion 
of no less than fourteen feet. 
'i he eye was extremely small relatively, and at a slight 
distance hardly discernible. It is placed on a prominent part of 
* When I examined the animal in Bristol the inner surface of 
the pectorals appeared to be white. As to this, however, note what 
is said above in regard to loss of colour. 
