slender for a Balcenoptera, being even more so than in Balcena myaticetus as viewed
laterally (vide Oss. Eoss., El. XXVI, fig. 9), while the coronoid process is well
developed, as in Gray’s figure of the lower jaw of Balamoptera rostrata ( Zool.
Voy. Erebus and Terror, Cetacea, p. ¿2 ); the base of the jaw, however, posterior to
the process is not deeper, as in that figure, hut the reverse, and the jaw is proportionally
ranch longer anterior to the process. The entire length of each ramus is within
less than two inches of twenty-one feet, showing the head to have been about one-
fourth of the total length. Vertifial diameter three feet; in advance of summit of
coronoid eighteen inches (measured by calipers); at three feet from tip, 13-50 inches;
and where most contracted, posterior to the coronoid, fifteen inches only; extreme
depth at coronoid process (inclusively) 26-75 inches. Erom middle of coronoid to
summit of condyle posteriorly in a straight line, 37'50 inches. The shaft of the
ramus is more approximately of the same thickness throughout than in. Balcena
myaticetus, tapering quite evenly.” Erofessor Elower1 has observed on these remarks
by Blyth, that his description of the coronoid process of the lower jaw indicates
that it did not belong to the genus Sibbaldius, hut was probably a Physalus. The
jaw, however, does not differ structurally from the jaw of the Whale found near the
Sittang, and which I propose to designate B. edeni. It, moreover, agrees with
Elower’s description of the jaw of Balcenoptera: B Rami of lower jaw much curved
a n d with a high pointed coronoid process.” The radius % 35-60 inches long, and
Blyth remarks it is | nearly similar in shape to, hut more curved than, that of
Megaptera poeakop (Rorqual dn Cap, Cuvier, Oss. Eoss., El. 227, fig. 22 e). The
shape of this hone in Balcena, as figured by Cuvier, is remarkably different.”
The rib is proportionally small, measuring only 8 feet 2 inohes round its curvature
to superior articulation. I t is probably the third of the series on the right side.
The five vertebras which Blyth originally considered as belonging;!® two distinct
Whales he afterwards, I believe, correctly regarded as having belonged to the
same individual. Two are dorsal, according to Blyth, hut they are undoubtedly
the first and second lumbar vertebrae, if the animal had only ten ribs; however
they have been much hacked and are mutilated of their processes. I differ also
from him regarding the positions he assigned to the others.
Measurements of vertebrae of B. indiea.
1ST Lumbak. 2nd I.dhbab. 9th Lvkbab. 11th Lvkbab. 8bd Caudal.
(6th Dorsal of
Bljth).
(7th Dorsal of
Bljth).
(1st Lumbar of
Bljth).
6th, 6th Lumbar
of Bljth).
(4th Caudal of
Bljth).
xtreme transverse measurement .
„ vertical » . . .
eneth of body with epiphyses
[eight of „ ' „ »
fidth of ¡'Si?? » • • •
xtreme transverse of neural canal
„ vertical » u » •
Inches.
li*30
11-50
1 500
4-10
Inches.
11-30
11-30
16-30
3-85
Inches.
37-50
14-50
13-78
16-75
3-48
4-50
Inches.
3100
360 0
14-30
12-75
16-50
3-35
5 0 0
Inches.
2600
27-75
12-75
14-75
16-75
2*45
3-95
1 Proc. Zool. Soc., 1864, p. 408, footnote.
In the “ Asiatic Researches,” Vol. XV, App., p. xxxiv, a large jaw-bone of a
Whale is recorded, but Blyth observes that it was only the hasal portion of one, and
that when he wrote, it was much injured by long exposure to the weather out-of-
doors ; but it appeared, he considered, to have belonged to a rather smaller individual
of the same species, which he thought he might safely venture on designating
Balcenoptera indicct.
In the “ Asiatic Researches,” Vol. XVII, p. 624, and “ Gleanings of Science,”
p. 711, the vertebrae and cranium of a Whale are recorded as having been presented
to the Asiatic Society’s Museum by G. Swinton, Esq. (1836). These, when Blyth wrote
in 1859, were much damaged and mostly valueless from long exposure to all
weathers, and, when I took over charge of the Museum for Government, these bones
had fallen to pieces. The length of the Whale, Blyth mentions, was about 30 feet,
of which the head was about one-fourth, and he was rather more inclined to consider
this as the young of Balcenoptera indicct than as another and smaller species.
A fine skull of the same species, with the rami of the lower jaw measuring 10 feet,
was obtained by the late Professor H. Walker from Arakan, and this specimen is
deposited in the Zoological Museum of the Medical College, Calcutta, now under my
charge. Blyth remarks of the first of these specimens that the bones of the lower
jaw were mutilated, and that only the shafts remained, but that in the Medical College
skull the coronoid, &c., of the lower jaw accorded with those of the 21-feet jaw,
which he considered as the type of Balcenoptera indicct.
The question here suggests itself,—is it not possible that these comparatively
small Whales are the young of the giant specimen, which measured 84 feet long, and
the rami of the lower jaws of which, measuring close upon 21 feet in length, are now
in the Indian Museum, along with other fragments ? I think I can adduce evidence
to prove conclusively that the two belong to distinct species, and that the skull of
the specimen in the Calcutta Medical College must have been that of a nearly adult
individual. This evidence is derived from the study of a Whale, which, owing to
some cause or other, found its way into the Thaybyoo Choung, which runs into the
Gulf of Martaban between the Sittang and Beeling rivers, and about equidistant from
each, and now known as the Sittang Whale. The m a l e ran up this creek for more
than twenty miles and was stranded in a heavy squall on the 18th June 1871. It
then exhausted itself by its furious struggles, during which it is said to have roared
like an elephant and so loud as to be heard a very long way off; it died the same
night, or on the morning of the following day.
Having seen a short paragraph in a Calcutta newspaper relating to the stranding
of this Whale, I at once telegraphed to the Hon’ble A. Eden, then Chief Commissioner
of British Burma, requesting him to be so good as to issue instructions for
the preservation of the skeleton, and offering to send a competent person, if necessary,
to assist in doing so. The Deputy Commissioner at Shwe Gyeen, Major A. G. Duff,
was communicated with, and he sent me a reply, that assistance would be useless, as
the place where the Whale had stranded was a wide tidal creek subject to the bore,
and that all that remained of the creature had probably long ere this been broken to
x 3