36 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
from decomposition, the furrows were opened up, became wider 
and shallower, and the ridges underwent a corresponding diminu¬ 
tion in breadth. At the same time a considerable change took 
place in the contour of the body in the thoracic and abdominal 
regions, which presented a huge lateral bulging, giving a greater 
girth than when it first came ashore. 
The flipper, which measured 12 feet 3 inches from root to tip 
along its anterior convex border, projected from the side of the 
body 31 feet 4 inches behind the tip of the lower jaw, and 14 feet 
behind the angle of the mouth. It curved outwards and back¬ 
wards, terminating in a free pointed end. The distance between 
the two flippers, measured over the back between the anterior 
borders of their roots, was 18 feet 6 inches. 
On the dorsum of the beak and of the cranium, on the back of 
the body, and for some distance down its sides, the colour was 
dark steel grey, amounting in some lights almost to black. On a 
line with the pectoral flipper the sides were mottled with wdiite, 
and on the ventral surface irregular, and in some cases large patches 
of a silvery grey or whitish colour were seen. An experienced 
whaling seaman, Mr Walter Roddam, who had repeatedly seen 
this kind of whale in the northern seas, told him that it was known 
to the whalers by the name of “silver bottom.” The dorsal fin 
was steel grey or black, except near its posterior border, where it 
was a shade lighter and streaked with black lines. The anterior 
margin of the lobes of the tail, its upper surface near the root and 
for the anterior two-thirds, were black, whilst the posterior third of 
the same surface and the interlobular notch were lighter in tint. 
The upper surface of the flipper was steel grey, mottled with white 
at the root, at the tip, along its posterior or internal border, and on 
the under surface; white patches were seen on the upper surface 
near the tip, and here they were streaked with black lines running- 
in the long axis of the flipper. White patches also extended from 
the root of the flipper to the adjacent parts of the sides of the 
animal. The outside of the lower jaw was black, whilst the in¬ 
side was streaked with grey. The tongue of the whale"' was of 
enormous size. The dorsum was comparatively smooth in front, 
but at the posterior part it was elevated into hillocks which were 
separated by deep furrows. The baleen had a deep black colour, 
