194 
REINHARDT ON 
Garten/ 1 and some additional and more satisfactory knowledge about its outward appearance 
has also been gained in another way, namely, by the assistance of some photographs, pretty well 
executed, 2 and a very fine plaster-of-Paris model, about seventeen inches long, which Professor 
Behn ordered to be made of the animal, just after it was killed. Here accordingly, we have 
another form that cannot be left unnoticed in deciding the question to what species the animals 
thrown ashore on Asnaes and Refsnaes belonged; and besides the size, there were, indeed, several 
other points in the latter specimens, for instance, the form and size of the pectoral fins, the 
number and appearance of the teeth, that could not but lead our researches to the Kiel dolphin, 
and raise a strong supposition in favour of its being really of the same species as the object of 
our present examination. To this it may be objected, that it would be strange if a dolphin, 
not known to have been observed previously in the North, had now suddenly appeared in the 
course of a few months, not only once but thrice; it may, however, on second thoughts, be con¬ 
sidered still more extraordinary if, at short intervals, tivo great, hitherto unknown Cetaceans 
had made their appearance on our coasts, and the objection will lose all its weight, when we 
consider that it was not a single individual, but a great shoal, evidently astray, 3 that entered 
the Bay of Kiel, and that, most probably, the Refsnaes and the Asnaes dolphins belonged to the 
same. For it is likely enough 4 that such a shoal, having once strayed into strange and narrow 
seas, may continue to roam in them for a long time, without being able to find its way out again 
into the open ocean. However, as we know nothing essential about the Kiel dolphin, except as 
far as its external appearance is concerned, the skeleton being still perfectly unknown, and 
as, on the other hand, I did not know much about the outward appearance of my dolphins (the 
shape of the pectoral fins alone excepted, having found one of those of the individual buried at 
Refsnaes in a condition so little injured, that I was able to take an exact copy of its outline), 
1 might, indeed, resting on the information before me, consider it to be very probable, that 
the latter two were of the same species as the former one, but as matters stood, a perfect 
certainty could only be obtained by a comparison of the skeletons, or at all events of their more 
characteristic parts. I wrote, accordingly, to Professor Behn, in order to get the question 
settled in this way, adding a sketch of the cranium of the individual stranded at Asnaes. That 
gentleman, formerly my fellow voyager, had the kindness not only to confirm my supposition, 
but at the same time to furnish me with such information about the cranium of the skeleton set 
1 III Jahrgang, No. 2 (Februar, 1802), p. 39. 2 See figure at p. 191. 
3 For we suppose that very few’ will believe that these colossal auimals are natives of the Baltic, 
and the narrow sounds between our islands, or that they even appear rather frequently in these seas. 
4 That these individuals really belonged to the shoal that entered the Bay of Kiel is rendered 
still more probable by the fact, already mentioned, that an individual of the same species was 
also found at Middelfart, shortly before Whitsuntide, 1862, that is just in the interval between 
the time when the shoal was first discovered in the Bay of Kiel and the stranding of the carcass 
found at Refsnaes. I should not be surprised if part of the shoal dispersed at Kiel were still, 
at the time when I am writing this, roaming about in our sounds and belts, and if the two large 
dolphins which, according to the statements of the newspapers, were thrown ashore at Naskov in the 
end of October, 1862, should also prove to have belonged to the same species. The size (a length of 
seven or nine ells, aud a “ circumference as that of a horse ”) would at all events favour such a sup¬ 
position. It is to be regretted that the measures taken to endeavour to preserve some parts of these 
auimals for our museums, have been, as far as I kuow, unsuccessful. 
