been seen by any naturalist? Is it the Southern whale in which the Dutch whalers have thought they have recognized their 'North-Caper'? Has it disappeared since this fishery was established, like so many other kinds which have been annihilated within historic times?[1] There is need of facts to dissipate these doubts; the best arguments do not suffice. But can one ever hope to find them for these delicate and difficult questions? In these uncertainties, zoologists, not knowing whether to think Cuvier right or the Iceland fishermen, were in great commotion some years since in respect to an event which happened in the Gulf of Gascony. This was in January, 1854. It is at this period of the year that the ancient whales arrive there regularly to take their winter station. A mother-whale, accompanied by its cub, made its appearance at St. Sebastian one day in January, and fortunately the young whale was captured. The Museum of Pampeluna made the acquisition of it. Eschricht heard this news at Copenhagen; nothing passed in the world of whales that he was not informed of. 'It is my Biscay whale,' said he; 'the species still exists.' He trembled at the idea that the treasure might escape him. He arrived at Louvain nearly at the same time as the letter by which he informed me of the news; announced to the Institute of France the motive of his passage to Paris;[2] arrived at Pampeluna, made his way at once to the coast, and buried himself in the midst of the shore in the study of the bones of the head and of the vertebrae of this precious relic. The victory was his. This whale differed completely from that of the North.[3] It was really a remnant of those ancient legions which once on a time visited these latitudes in numerous bands, and which have since deserted these places. On our coast the whales stranded since the beginning of this century have been far from numerous, and we could easily enumerate them. Several years since, . . M. de Selys-Longchamps mentioned them in his Belgian 'Fauna.' There are but two balenoptera; the one of Kessels, found dead at sea in 1827 by the Ostend fishermen,[4]
- ↑ We know that since the historic period many species have abandoned the centre of Europe, and that others have also completely disappeared. . . . The reindeer and elk have quitted the interior of Europe since the extinction of the mammoths. The Dodo and the Alca impennis have undoubtedly completely disappeared. We are fortunately not altogether certain of the latter. It is believed that the Rythina Stelleri, the singular sirenian of the Behring Sea, is equally lost; but we have had great satisfaction in seeing that the Museum of St. Petersburg has received a complete skeleton. Nordmann, 'Paläontologie Sued-Russlands,' Helsinglors, 1859–60, p. 328.
- ↑ 'Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences,' sitting July 12th, 1858.
- ↑ 'Sur les Baleines franches du Golfe de Biscaye,' in Comptes Rendus, 1860. In a letter dated from Copenhagen, Eschricht had the kinduess to inform me of the result of his researches on the difference of these two species of whales. "The skeleton of Pampeluna has entirely occupied me," he wrote on the 18th May. "It is the most curious of any that I have met. It is nearly mounted, and the enormous difference between it and the Mysticetus surpasses all I had expected before my sojourn at Pampeluna. Figure to yourself," he added, "that it is not more developed than the skeleton of a Mysticetus of less than a year; the ossification of the vertebræ has not advanced beyond the transverse apophyses; and the arches, which are not even united on both sides, are still separated from the body, whilst the vertebral column is as large as that of a Mysticetus of three years and a half." Eschricht, 'Développement du questionuaire relatif aux Cétacés,' in 'Actes de la Société Linnéenne de Bordeaux,' t. xxii., 4me livr.
- ↑ Van Breda, 'Eenige Bijsonderheden omtrent den Walrisch die den 5 November 1827 bij Ostende gestrand is,' in Algemeine Koust en Letterbode, 1827, 2e vol.
Vanderlinden, Bibl. Inéd. Nat. et Etrang., t. v., 1028.—'Bydragen tot de Naturalische Wetensch.,' 4de deel, 1829.—Messag. des Sciences, 1329. Du Bar, ' Ostéographie de la Baleine,' Bruxelles, 1828.
