112 Whale lately taken in the River Crouch.
further that the court rolls contained evidence of present-
ments made in respect of Porpoises.
"His lordship granted an interim injunction over next
Friday, in the terms above stated."
The Whale was ultimately purchased by Mr. E. P.
Ramsay, curator of the Australian Museum, Sydney, and
the skeleton, when roughly cleaned by Mr. Gerrard, was
removed to London, where I had the opportunity of
examining it on the 17th of November, and of determining
the species to which it belonged, which had hitherto been
a matter of doubt, though it had been generally supposed
to be a young example of the Common Rorqual (Balae-
noptera musculm). The animal was a male, and Mr. J. T.
Carrington, who saw it within two days of its capture,
describes the colour of its back as a rich glossy black
which shaded to a brilliant white on the under parts, the
flippers being black. Unfortunately, no accurate drawing or
more detailed description of its external characters appears
to have been taken.1
The skull measured 6 feet 2 inches in length, and the
complete vertebral column 22 feet 3 inches, giving 28 feet
5 inches in length from the apex of the rostrum to the end
of the last caudal vertebra, in a straight line, all the intra-
vertebral substances being preserved. The length of the
animal in the flesh may therefore be taken at about 29 feet.
The condition of the bones showed that it was not adult.
There are good grounds for believing that this species, when
fully grown, may attain the length of 40 feet, if not more,
though there is no specimen of that size at present preserved
in any museum. There were seven cervical, thirteen dorsal,
fifteen lumbar, and twenty-one caudal vertebra, making
1 [Photographs of the. Whale were taken by Mr. E. Lawton, of Southend,
and a set of them, presented by Mr. R. Meldola, is now in the library of
the Club. The photographs have been shown to Prof. Flower, who
remarks upon them: "They show some points in the exterior of the
Whale of interest, but, owing to the distorted position of the subject,
together with the foreshortening and absence of view of the side and
back, it would not be possible to construct from them a zoologically
accurate figure of the complete animal."—Ep.]