Volume 7, 1874
– 266 –
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Art. XXXVI.—Description of some Plates of Baleen in the Otago Museum.
[Read before the Otago Institute, 13th July, 1874.]
| Inches. | |
| Length along outer border to gum-line | 19 |
| " " "to sheath of papillæ | 21 |
| " "setose margin | 31 |
| " "inner margin to gum-line | 2 |
| " from mesial point of gum-line to extreme apex | 25 |
| Depth of gum | 2 |
| Width along gum-line | 18 |
Setæ 5 to 12 inches in length, longer on the setose margin than at the apex. Colour black; texture wavy.
Inside these there are five or six rows of accessory plates decreasing in size and strongly setose.
Dr. Coughtrey informs me that it is very similar in appearance to the baleen of Balœnoptera sibaldii of the Arctic seas.
The whale to which these belonged came ashore near Coal Point, on the south-east coast of Otago, in 1873. I was informed that it measured 109 feet in length.