227 Part [11.—Twenty-first Annual Report 
One or two of the largest of the Whiting earstones measured ten milli- 
metres in length and a number of them nine,millimetres, but the average 
length would be about eight millimetres. A considerable number of the 
earstones were found scattered over the surface of the stomach mixed up 
with the soft partly digested matter, but by far the larger number were 
found neatly packed together in the narrow distal end of the stomach ; 
these earstones were remarkably clean and perfect. A few of the 
smaller of the Whiting earstones were slightly eroded by the solvent 
action of the digestive fluids. It may be mentioned that the intestines, 
which were of great length, contained very little matter, and no parasites 
were in them or in the other viscera except those already referred to. 
Usually a Whiting has only two earstones, so that the two hundred and 
forty found in the stomach and which almost certainly belonged to 
Whitings represented one hundred and twenty fishes, and if each pair of 
the remainder represented a fish, the earstones found in this stomach 
would represent one hundred and forty fishes. But, while making every 
allowance for the voracity of these cetaceans, it is hardly likely that this 
Porpoise had taken all these fishes at a single meal; but, judging from 
the perfect condition of the majority of the earstones, they could not have 
been long in the stomach. The annexed woodcut is reproduced from a 
photograph of the earstones as arranged and mounted on a slide. 
