A WHALE AT MERSEA IN 1299.
149
. . . . may be due to the interaction of sulphuric acid and
lime in the surface soil" are very convincing.
If the boulder-clay is pervious to rainwater (which I assumed
on agricultural grounds, and because the clay of the chalky
deposites is granular and not colloidal), any sulphate of lime
would be dissolved away, and no accumulations would be
expected. I think Mr. Dalton is mistaken in supposing that
rainwater owes the whole of its sulphuric acid to the combustion
of carbonaceous fuels, though it undoubtedly owes most. Nor
can I agree that a London Clay soil requires lime-dressing mainly
because of the production of sulphuric acid from pyrites; the
de-calcified Boulder-clay requires lime-dressing just as much.
The subject, which is one of great practical importance is
more fully discussed in the May number of the Journal of
Agricultural Science (1905, page 217).
T. S. Dymond.
A WHALE AT MERSEY IN 1299.
By J. E. HARTING, F.L.S., F.Z.S.
THE extract from the Wardrobe Accounts of King Edward I.
quoted by Mr. Miller Christy in the last number of the
Essex Naturalist (ante p. 135), having reference to the
occurrence of a supposed whale at Mersea in 1299, is of much
interest and suggests a little criticism. For two reasons it
appears to me doubtful whether the Latin word balena (or balaena)
is in this case rightly applied to a whale. The entry in the
accounts referred to includes a charge for supplying an empty
cask for the purpose of transporting the creature to Stanford,
from which we are to infer either that the animal, if a whale,
was a very young one, or that the cask was a very large one.
Again the name balaena (qalaiva), as I shall presently show,
was formerly sometimes applied to the porpoise. It will be of
interest to look at some of the earliest applications of the word,
which, almost needless to say, are to be found under the head of
"Fishes."
In the Colloquy of Archbishop Alfric, of the 10th century, com-
posed with the object of teaching the Anglo-Saxon scholars
Latin (Mus. Brit. Bibl. Cotton Tiberius, A. iii.) there is an
amusing dialogue with a fisherman in which the A.S. hwael
is rendered in Latin cetus and balaena, both these words