369 
of Edinburgh , Session 1870 - 71 . 
sanded. 57 foots long’ and 56 round, tooth under, & all the skin 
blackish blew, werie smooth, and as thick as a bull’s, & all white 
fat within & nixt the skin.’ ” 
Figures 2 and 3 are very fair representations of the back and 
left side of a male sperm whale, and the plate was in all proba¬ 
bility prepared for the second part of his “ Phalainologia,” which 
does not seem, however, to have been published. 
In the year 1756 a sperm whale, 63 feet long, is said to have 
been stranded on the west coast of Boss-shire.* 
In the year 1769 a third specimen was seen in the Forth. It 
ran ashore on Cramond Island, on December 22, and was there 
killed. It was described and figured by Mr James Bobertson, of 
Edinburgh, in the “ Philosophical Transactions.”f This animal 
was a male, and measured 54 feet in length, the greatest circum¬ 
ference being 30 feet. 
In the Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. v., 1793, it is stated 
in the account of Unst, in Shetland, that u the spermaceti whale 
sometimes wanders to this coast, and is here entangled and taken.” 
The Bev. George Low, in his “ Fauna Orcadensis,” 1813, says that 
the sperm whale “ is often drove ashore about the Orkneys, and 
sometimes caught. One, about 50 feet long, was caught in Hoy 
Sound, some years ago, from which was extracted a vast quantity 
of spermaceti; as also another, which drove ashore in Hoy.” 
The most recent specimen, also a male, of this animal was 
washed ashore, in a much decomposed state, in July 1863, near 
Thurso. The skeleton was presented to the British Museum, and 
formed a part of the material from which Professor Flower has 
drawn up his admirable account of the osteology of the sperm 
whale. 
This whale, in the tropical or semi-tropical seas, which more 
especially are its proper habitat, moves about, as a general rule, in 
large herds or “ schools.” The eight well-authenticated speci¬ 
mens which have now been captured on the Scottish coasts have 
been solitary animals, which have wandered northwards, perhaps, 
in the track of the Gulf Stream. Of these eight specimens the sex 
* Jardine’s “ Naturalist’s Library. Mammalia,” vol. vi. Cetacea. Edin¬ 
burgh, 1837. 
+ March 10, 1770. 
