2-996-027 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Cetacean animal recently cast on the Kentish coast, near Whitstable, 1860. From "Illustrated London News", 1860. 'It may be of interest to those of our readers who are naturalists, as the animal does not seem to belong exactly to any of the described genera...Its extreme length is 26 feet... The 'blowhole,' as shown in the Engraving, is set transversely on the crown of the head, in a single straight line, about 6 inches long, and slightly behind the eyes. The eyes are of the human shape, about twice as large, and with eyelids...The tongue is entirely detached beneath, and is fringed with a kind of papillae in a double row, which is about three-quarters of an inch in length...With this animal was taken her young one, also a female, about 14 ft. long...This description is of course that of the grampus or bottle-nosed dolphin; but if so the size, and the entire absence of any vestige of teeth, do not agree with any recorded description that I have met with, whilst the absence of 'baleen' equally prevents their being assigned to the whale family...The carcasses were purchased by Whitstable fishermen, who intend to take a note of the food they find in them, and to preserve the skeletons'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.