PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2602, 7 May 1869, Page 2

PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE.

The following paper, entitled “Preliminary notice of a Ziphid Whale, probably Berardius Arnuxii, stranded the I6th of December, 1868, on the sea beach, near New Brighton, was read by Dr Julius Haast, at the meeting of the Canterbury Philosophical Institute on Wednesday:— Towards the latter part of December of last year, it was stated that a whale had been stranded on the sea beach, near the mouth of the Avon. Unfortunately the notice reached Dr Haast too late to enable him to see the body in its fresh state, and when he went to the sea beach the blubber had been cut off nearly a week, and the animal was already in such an advanced state of putrefaction, that the external appearance was greatly destroyed. Before entering into a description of its affinities and peculiarities, he might be allowed to offer a few observations on its capture. Mr William Walker, a fisherman, living near the mouth of the Avon, one mile and a-half below New Brighton, observed, on the 16th of December, early in the morning, that a huge animal was in the surf, making the most strenuous efforts to return to deeper Water The fisherman had only a large sbeath knife with him, with which he stabbed it several times, making it bleed very freely. Each time when the water reached it, it threw out a large quantity of water and sand from its blowers, like a fountain ; at the same time, it moved its tail with such vehemence, that it threw its captor several times, when he came too near it. Seeing that he could not manage the large animal by himself, he returned home to fetch a rope, a larger knife, and assistance. After having, with some wouble, placed the rope round the tail, and festened it securely to the stump of a tree on the beach, he inflicted with the large knife some deep wounds, from which the blood ran copiously ; but the animal, notwithstanding this great loss of blood, still lived fourteen hours. The fisherman also put a large stick several times into its mouth, which,to use his own words, made the whale bellow like a bull A very interesting fact may be deduced from the observations of Mrs Walker, who accompanied her husband on the second trip She told her husband that each time he put the stick into the whale’s mouth, she could sec several large teeth in front of its lower iaw which, however, were not observed bv invbody else, and the existence of which wL only revealed when the skull was cleaned when, in front of the lower jaw, twolS triangular and moveable teeth on each sidTb£ came exposed. It thus seems that the Zlnhid whales, when defending themselves from their enemies, or attacking their nrev have the power to protrude theseloir S at will, huch » hypothesis gains Irtill more m probability when we coSder thi nature of the principal food of theaLSl which, judging from the contented stomach, seems to consist almost excliiroS of the common sea-spider. oephalopod which, as in the phere, does not seem to be v2^-25fl , ‘ along the coast. In the stomaS Jf m question there was 1 v 7 hlde the horny °* were neariyaUof the which for any whale, be w °uld, possession oPsuet ob< f? a

means of taking good hold of it. it is in' temtlng that the allied genera Ziphius and Hyperoodon of the Northern hemisphere feed also on similar species of cuttle-fish, as he learned from a paper of Dr J. E. Gray, of the British Museum (Proceedings Zoological Society, 1868, page 422). Also, the sperm whales are said to feed almost exclusively upon the same voracious animal, which, by its agility and organisation, is so well adapted to make great havoc amongst the smaller inhabitants of the sea. And, as Dr Gray justly observes, it proves, at the same time, that these cephalopods, although apparently of rare occurrence, must in many localities be very numerous, as it would otherwise be impossible to understand how they could furnish those huge whales with sufficient food When he (Dr Haast) proceeded to the beach the animal was still lying in the surf, partly covered by sand, but still being intact. H e measured its length exactly, which he found from the tip of the nose to the end of the* lobes of the tail, to be 3u feet (, inches The colour of the whole animal was of a deep velvety black, with the exception of the lower portion of the belly, which had a greyish colour. The tail was 6 feet r, inches broad, and had the usual two falcate lobe. The dorsal fins were situated mar the neet’ a little above the middle of the body and were 17 inches broad and i'j inches \< msr They had a triangular form, and one of them was buried in the sand when he saw the i first. The dorsal fin was unfortunately j* stroyed when he first inspected t hc that he could not describe i ts form tion from his own observations • l„o xr Walker told him that, it W: . ’ , , the usual falcate f„ rril) 1 ’ h * l situated not far from the tail might here observe that, from 'the form of the skull and some o„, r characterises™ appears evident that tins whale is the lioArdius Amuxii of Duvernoy. of which a sped men was caught in 1846 in Akaroa harbour the skull of which, of a length of four feet’ is at present in the Imperial Museum,"in Paris. The animal to which it belonged i* described as having been :vi feet Ion;', and possessing a large dorsal fin with a large boas or hump in front of it. As putrefaction and the cutting off of the blubber had greatly changed the outlines of thc animal, he could not observe whether it had possessed the larger boss in front. Mr Walker did not speak of it when he gave him a description of the animal as it appeared when captured. However, as the figure of the skull, as given by Duvernoy in the “ Annales des Sciences Naturelles,” and copied into Dr Gray’s “ British Museum Catalogue of Seals and Whales,” is identical with tliat of our own specimen, he did not hesitate to state that Ixith belong to the same species. It also seemed to him that this whale is very local, probably inhabiting only the coast of New Zealand, and perhaps the regions south of it, because, as far as he can find, it has never been observed elsewhere. It has without doubt not been met with on the coasts of Australia, or it would not have passed unnoticed, us, amongst others, the energetic director of the Australian Museum, Gcrh. Krefft, F.L.S., has not observed it. He might here state that the form of the skull is very peculiar, reminding one strongly of that of a dolphin. There seems to be nothing known of this peculiar whale, except its external appearance and its skull, and it is, therefore, a matter of congratulation to us, that we shall be able to supply all the details of its osteological characteristics, which are peculiar in many respects. The specimen in our possession was evidently a young animal, because all the disc-like epiphyses of the vertebrae are still detached. The same is the case with the epiphyses of the limb-bones, which are not yet united with them ; also, the sutures of the cranium are not yet obliterated. The beginning of coalescence is, however, to be observed in the seven cervical vertebrae, of which the three first are already anchylosed, the two first completely, and the second and third only partially, as the neural arches and transverse processes are not yet united in one bone. In the allied hyperoodon all the cervical vertebrae are coalesced, and it is therefore possible that when Berardius is in an adult state, the same will have taken place. He observed, however, Ziphius has six cervical vertebrae separate,, and it will therefore be necessary to examine very carefully into the character of the nncoalesced vertebrae of our skeleton before giving a decided opinion upon the subject. It possesses 10 dorsal vertebrae in common with Ziphius Sowerbiensis, the hyperoodoot whales have 7, and the dolphins 13 to 15. He had not yet been able to count and examine the lumbar and caudal vertebrae, as the animal was in such a state of putrefaction that after clearing the bones as well as possible, and leaving often a great portion of the vertebral column together, they put them at once to macerate. They obtained only one of the small pelvic bones, the other having probably been washed away by the surf; it might, however, owing to its diminutive size and sticking loosely in the flesh,, easily have been overlooked. As soon as. the bones are clean, so that they could begin to examine them, he would offer a few more observations upon the osteology of this remarkable animal, the possession of the complete skeleton of which the Canterbury Museum owes to the Philosophical Institute, without the pecuniary assistance of which he should have been unable to secure it for the province.