234
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
whale fishery is declining, owing to the Right Whales being vastly reduced
in numbers. Dr. Caiman remarked that when he was a lad in Dundee the
value of the whalebone from a single Right Whale might amount to £1,000.
To-day the Rorquals were hunted as far afield as South Georgia in the
Antarctic, although the whalebone obtained from them is shorter and less
elastic, therefore of less value than that of the Right Whales. During the
recent War the blubber from these Rorquals was used as a constituent of
margarine and also in the manufacture of explosives. One Rorqual had
been measured in South Georgian waters and was proved to be 105 feet in
extreme length—probably the largest mammal ever known in the earth's
history. The foetal Rorqual has rudiments of teeth which, however, never
cut the gums.
In recent times, one of the Toothed Whales, the Narwhal, was hunted
for its single horn, although this is valueless for ivory on account of its
"shakes." Yet good prices were obtained for it, and it was found that a
certain Indian Rajah was purchasing the horns in quantity as a valued charm
against the "evil eye."
Dr. Caiman then conducted the party to the museum workshop, where
casts of various whales were actually being made. One of these, a new
accession, a freshwater Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer), m. from the river Yang-
tse-Kiang, 1,000 miles from the sea, attracted much interest; like other
freshwater Dolphins it is blind, and it exhibits in a marked degree the struct-
ural asymmetry which all the Toothed Whales possess more or less.
At the conclusion of Dr. Caiman's most interesting talk, the President
moved the cordial thanks of the party to him for his kindness ; these were
"warmly accorded, and the party separated.
ORDINARY MEETING (557TH MEETING).
Saturday, 27TH January, 1923.
This Meeting was held in the Physical Lecture Theatre of the Municipal
College, Romford Road, Stratford, the President, Mr. Robert Paulson,
F.L.S., F.R.M.S., in the chair. Fifty members attended.
The Hon. Secretary announced the death, on the preceding Wednesday,
of Mr. Thomas Vincent Holmes, F.G.S., a past president of the Club. Mr.
Whitaker stated that he had attended the funeral of his old friend that
morning at Shooter's Hill; and both Mr. Whitaker and the Hon. Secretary
spoke of the deceased gentleman's work for, and gifts to, the Club. On
the President's motion, a vote of condolence with the surviving relatives
was passed in silence, the members standing.
Miss Constance E. Prichard, of 7, The Broadway, Woodford Green, was
elected a member.
The Hon. Secretary announced the appointment by the Council of a Com-
mittee to draw up a revised list of the plants of the Epping Forest district,
and both he and the President invited the co-operation of botanical members
in compiling this list.
The Curator exhibited :—
a. An adult Black-throated Diver (Colymbus arcticus) from Sweden,
presented by Miss Hibbert-Ware ; the specimen had been shot by
Dr. Goethe in August 1922, in full breeding plumage, and preserved
as a skin ; since its accession it has been mounted as a set-up speci-
men in the Museum.