found its way up the St. Lawrence till nearly opposite the village of Montreal, where it continued to play itself for several days, not being able, from the shallowness of the water, to navigate its way down the river. Having attracted the notice of the inhabitants, several enterprising individuals put off in boats with some whale-fishing materials in pursuit of it; and at last after nearly a week's exertion it was harpooned by Captain Brush of the Tow steamboat. It was immediately dragged ashore, and exhibited in a booth fitted up for the purpose, for the gratification of the inhabitants. It was found to measure forty-two feet eight inches in length, six feet across the back, and seven feet deep. It has since been conveyed to Three Rivers and Quebec for the same purpose." Early in August of this year (1871) two whales were seen sporting on the shores of the Gulf, and a Mr. Chabot, and an Englishman, who claim to have invented a gun harpoon (on Capt.. Manby's principle), brought their gun to the shore and discharged the harpoon. As the whale instantly disappeared, and as the rope returned to the shore without the harpoon, they were under the impression that the whale had been struck. Some days afterwards, the government steamer Druid' being down the North Channel, saw something on the beach at St. Joachim, which they thought at first was a boat, but on nearer approach it was discovered to be a whale. Ropes were attached to the jaw and tail, and the huge animal was towed to the Police Wharf at Quebec, where for a few days it was visited by thousands, but becoming extremely offensive, and the weather being very hot, the Mayor very properly ordered it to be removed. It was sold by auction, and purchased by Mr. Gregory for $260, and was then towed to 'Patrick's Hole,' close to the Church of St. Laurent, where Wolfe's army first landed, and there beached and preparations made for fleching it. I had not an opportunity of seeing it at Quebec, but through the politeness of Mr. Gregory, who gave me a passage, I had the satisfaction of seeing it at Patrick's Hole.' On approaching the beach we saw a number of the inhabitants around it, and on our nearer approach, our nostrils informed us that it was not the Guard's bouquet which made all the women have their handkerchiefs at their noses! I was not prepared to find so huge an animal. It was supposed that the two whales had been a female and its calf, and I was in formed that it was the calf that had been found. It turned out to be an aged male, apparently of the species Balana Mysticetus. I measured it as carefully as I could, and satisfied myself that it was sixty-five feet in length. The back was black, the belly furrowed, presenting exactly the appearance of a clinker-built boat, and each furrow alternately black and dingy white. The baleens of one side had been lost by being caught on the rocks while it was being hauled ashore, but the other though it had been removed from the jaw, was quite perfect, till the visitors began to appropriate its plates. With the permission of Mr. Gregory I secured a few plates. I never had an opportunity of seeing so large a whale before, though I saw the skeleton of the whale stranded on the beach of Portobello, near Edinburgh, in 1829, and purchased by Dr. Knox. I concluded after a careful examination that it answered fully the description given by De Kay, as follows: Nat. Ord. Cetacea; Genus Balana; Species, Balana mysti cetus. Right or common whale. Characteristics, black, occasionally varied with white or yellow. Gape of the mouth, arched, with about 600 laminae of whalebone. Length, forty to sixty feet. Description: body thickest in the middle, a little behind the fore paws; somewhat furrowed, tapering towards the tail. Head large, somewhat triangular. Opening of the mouth large, with a few scattering hairs on the end of the jaws. Eyes very small, and placed near the corners of the mouth. External jaw exceedingly minute. Spiracles two, oblong, adjacent, slightly largish in front. Palate and sides of upper jaw with two rows of whalebone from ten to thirteen feet long, and generally curved longitudinally, and giving an arched form to the roof of the mouth. Each series consists of three hundred or more laminae of whalebone, the interior edges of which are covered with a hair-like fringe. Swimming paws rounded, somewhat pointed, 7-9 feet long with a width of 4-5 feet, and situated about two feet behind the angle of the mouth. Tail very broad, notched in the centre, curved on the edges, and pointed at the tips. Colour: blackish throughout, occasionally with a small space under the body, and a larger space on the lower jaw, whitish grey or flesh colour. Very old individuals become varied with white, black, or piebald. Weight from 60 to 100 tons. 100 tons. It is presumed to have a gestation of nine months, produces one at a birth, which it suckles for about a year. It exhibits great maternal fondness, and although at other times remarkably timid, manifests great boldness and even ferocity in defending its young. It is gregarious, and was formerly found in every part of the ocean, but has been driven by the fishermen from the coasts of Europe and America. It was early followed by the Americans to the South Pacific, and its capture is now prosecuted in India and Africa. From the structure of its jaws and the smallness of its throat, it can only feed on the smaller oceanic animals. such as medusæ or sea jellies, shrimps, crabs, and some minute mollusca. Hence it differs most materially from the genus cachelot or sperm whale, which has got a wide gullet, and is capable of swallowing fishes of very considerable size. It feeds abundantly on the mackerel, and a portion of a shark has even been found in its stomach. At first thought it appears very wonderful that so immense an animal as the common whale should have to depend for its subsistence on minute animals, but the wonder ceases when we examine the waters to which they resort, sometimes in very large herds. De Kay says that he has seen off the coast of Brazil hundreds of miles where the mollusca are so numerous as to discolour the water, giving the appearance of wheat scattered over a reddish sandbank; and Scoresby has estimated that in some parts of the Arctic seas twenty-three quadrillions of such animalculæ are distributed over a surface of two square miles. There is very great difference in the accounts given of the size of the two whales which I have mentioned. Some writers give the length of the sperm whale at from 70 to 80 feet, and of the common whale at from 80 to 100 feet. It is quite possible that such may have been occasionally found, but they are to be viewed as exceptional, for Capt. Scoresby, the very highest authority, and who had personally engaged in the capture of 322 whales, says that not one of them exceeded 60 feet. I may mention how apt people are to be deceived as to the size of objects, and that no reliance can be placed on anything but actual measurement. A gentleman of Quebec, noted for his general intelligence and the interest he takes in all these subjects, met me in the library of the Literary and Historical Society, on his return from Cacouna. He said: "So you have had a great visitor at Quebec during my absence, but not so great as one that visited the St. Lawrence nearly fifty years ago, and was captured at Montreal. I have seen that the whale brought here last week was only 65 feet long; I should say that the other was at least a third larger." He was both surprised and amused when I read. to him the account from the Canadian Magazine which I have already given. The obvious difference between the sperm whale and the common is, that the sperm has a dorsal fin, and when the water is smooth the projection or hump is seen two or three feet above the surface. Its throat is also large, so that it would have no difficulty in swallowing a man. The Mysticetus or common whale, on the other hand, has neither dorsal fin or hump, and its gullet, as has been already said, is exceedingly small, not more than 1 inches in diameter. According to my admeasurement, corroborated by Mr. Gregory, as the whale lay on the beach at Patrick's Hole,' he was sixtyfive feet long, the fluke of his tail twelve feet, his jaw fifteen feet. From the condition he was in, I could not measure his breadth. When the skeleton was subsequently brought to the Police Wharf I had an opportunity of verifying, at any rate to my own satisfaction, the correctness of my first measure. The jaw bone, as it lay on the wharf stripped of all covering, measured exactly fourteen feet six inches. I felt justified from this fact in considering that my other measurements had been equally correct. Taking his length, then, at sixty-five feet, he was twenty-three feet longer than the one killed at Montreal in 1823, and five feet larger than the extreme length given by De Kay to the Mysticetus. A whale of such a size under ordinary circumstances should have yielded about sixty barrels of oil; this one only gave six, which is endeavoured to be accounted for by the supposition that he was aged, diseased, and worn out. May it not have been possible that having strayed from his feeding grounds, and having wandered up the St. Lawrence, where I believe he would have to depend for his subsistence on shrimps and medusae alone, he may have died from simple inanition. At any rate there was no mark of violence on his body, and Mr. Chabot's brother, who was sent to claim the whale as killed by his harpoon, failed to trace any wound or to find the harpoon, as he had expected. The skeleton has been well cleaned, and is very nearly complete, though the thin bones of the skull have been considerably fractured. It is still in the possession of Mr. Gregory, who has been more desirous of promoting science than enriching himself by the preservation of this splendid skeleton. We trust that some of our scientific bodies may make an effort to secure it, so that it may not be permitted to be sent out of the Province. NOTES ON THE PRIMORDIAL ROCKS IN THE By S. W. FORD. (From the American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. II., July, 1871.) In view of the prevailing uncertainty respecting the age of the rocks of that portion of the Taconic series of Professor Emmons lying east of the Hudson river, I was led several years ago to undertake the investigation of some of these rocks in my own neighbourhood, though I had but few hopes of learning anything essentially new about them. It soon became apparent that much valuable information might be obtained from them; and from certain facts which early came under my observation I was induced to continue their study. I propose here to notice briefly some of the more noteworthy results thus far obtained. The rocks immediately east of the Hudson at Troy are fine, black, glazed shales, with occasional sandy layers, and have usually been regarded as belonging to the Hudson River formation. They have been greatly crushed, but their general dip is evidently eastward, and at a high angle. They extend eastward about half a mile, and form a hill of considerable magnitude within the city limits. Following the course of this hill northward, we find them frequently well exposed in railway cuttings, and before reaching Lansingburgh, which is three miles distant, in a bold elevation several hundred feet in height. The only fossils which these shales have afforded, are the obscure form described under the name of Discophyllum peltatum (Pal. N. Y., vol. i,277, plate lxxv, fig. 3), and two or three species of graptolites, the latter having been but recently obtained. The graptolites resemble closely certain well-known Hudson river forms, but whether certainly identical I am at present unable to state. If truly Hudson river shales, then the absence of any other fossils in these rocks, except those above mentioned, appears not a little remarkable. Upon the east, after an interval of concealment varying somewhat in different localities, these shales are followed by the widely different rocks of the "Taconic" series, likewise dipping VOL. VI. F No. 2. |