# The Annals of Scottish Natural History/Risso’s Grampus (Grampus griseus) in the Solway Firth

RISSO'S GRAMPUS (GRAMPUS GRISEUS) IN THE SOLWAY FIRTH.
By Robert Service
On 28th of September last I read in our local newspaper, "Dumfries Courier," a short paragraph to the effect that on the 24th of that month a "young bottle-nose whale" had been captured near Annan. Knowing that the dimensions given were very unlikely to apply to that species, I lost no time in writing for further information to my obliging friend, Mr. Wm. Wright, Annan, who in due course replied, giving the following particulars:—The animal had been seen, when the tide ebbed, floundering in a pool on the sands of the Dumfriesshire Solway at a spot close to Battlehill, near Annan, by Mr. Wm. Blake, fisherman, who with assistance, and after a considerable struggle, killed it. Its dimensions were, length 10 feet 3 inches; girth at thickest part 5 feet; flippers 7 or 8 inches wide, 16 or 17 inches long; it had two bumps right on the nose, one on each side with hollow between the bumps were like one's fist and could be taken hold of. The shape from the dorsal to the tail "went away to nothing." Three teeth in each side of the front of lower jaw, and no teeth whatever in upper jaw. Colour of upper parts described as somewhat greenish in hue when alive and ​in the sea; after death the back was exactly the colour of “dark blue Welsh slates.” Under parts white. The animal was a female. On making subsequent inquiry about the white stripes usually present as a distinguishing character of Risso's Grampus, I was informed that “it had little faint gray streaky marks, ⅛ inch in width, and some were long, and some were short,” but as Mr. Wright had to prompt his informant on this point, I conclude these marks must have been inconspicuous. When requested by Mr. Wright, the lower jaws were very kindly presented to me by Mr. Blake. Before removing the mass of adherent flesh, I made a close examination of the dentition. Taking the left mandible, I found embedded in the flesh, at the point of the jaw in front of the three mandibular teeth, a couple of very small denticles, so soft as to be scarcely calcified, and quite easily cut through with the knife. They appeared on the surface as roughish points hardly to be seen, but easily felt with the finger. Then behind the three mandibular teeth were at regular intervals two small openings into the gum. These were about the diameter of an ordinary knitting wire. On shaving slices off the gum these openings were seen to widen out into tooth sacs of the calibre of an ordinary lead-pencil, and half an inch deep, and they were quite filled with a very soft, white, pasty substance with no signs whatever of calcification, except in the walls of these sacs, which were of tolerably hard cartilaginous matter, harder than the surrounding gums. The two front denticles had small, rough, shallow sockets in the bone, but the tooth sacs described had no visible sockets in the bone of the jaw, as was ascertained when the flesh was all removed. The right jaw had the couple of small denticles, the three mandibular teeth, and the two tooth sacs in the same order and position as on the left jaw. The mandibular teeth seemed remarkably loose in their sockets, and with the finger and thumb could be moved quite easily in any direction, the great depth and width of the sockets when compared with the size of the teeth perhaps accounting for this. Each of them was exactly half an inch above the gums; when removed from their sockets and cleaned, the front one on each side measured 1⅛ inch in total length, the others were all alike ​in measurement—1¼ inch. All of the six teeth had their summits bent inwards, had apparently been tolerably sharp at one time, but had become much worn and chipped. It may be worth pointing out that the dentition of this animal might be variously described as $\scriptstyle {\frac {0}{3}}$ $\scriptstyle {\frac {0}{3}}$ or $\scriptstyle {\frac {0}{5}}$ $\scriptstyle {\frac {0}{5}}$ or as $\scriptstyle {\frac {0}{7}}$ $\scriptstyle {\frac {0}{7}}$ according to the inclination of the observer.
Not trusting my own identification of this Cetacean as Risso's Grampus, I forwarded the jaw, after it had been cleaned, to Mr. Eagle Clarke, who promptly informed me that he had "compared it with the perfect remains of Grampus griseus in the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh, under Sir Wm. Turner's charge. The jaw belongs, undoubtedly, to a young specimen of that species." Before leaving this Annan specimen, it should be added that the oldest and most experienced of the Annan fishermen declared that none of them had ever seen a "whale" of the same kind in the Solway before.
On Monday, 17th October, I was told that a "small whale" had been killed on the previous Saturday evening at Carsethorn, a little fishing hamlet about fourteen miles from Dumfries, but situated in the adjoining county, on the shores of the Stewartry Solway, a little to the westwards of the mouth of the Nith. Following on the recent occurrence of the rarity at Annan, my interest in Cetaceans was now thoroughly aroused, and within a few hours after the notice reached me I was at Carsethorn. I had no anticipation whatever that I was so soon to hear of another example of the same species, and it was therefore with the most pleasurable feelings that, after walking down the beach from our gig, the friend who accompanied me and I saw, when the old sail had been lifted off the animal we had come to see, that we had before us another veritable Risso's Grampus. This one had been caught at the mouth of the Kirkbean Pow, at a little distance above Carsethorn village. It had been seen stranded in the shallow water when the tide receded, and was captured by Mr. Robert M$^c$Call, fisherman, with the assistance of the villagers. One man who was present described it as grunting very loudly, another said it barked like a mastiff dog, and snapped viciously at anything or anybody that came within its reach, ​while a third individual said it squealed! It had been stabbed in the throat and bled in the same way as pigs are slaughtered, and when I examined it, the body was positively undamaged in any way, with the exception of the cut under the throat. I made the following notes of its appearance on the spot:—
Dimensions.—Total length, 8 feet. Girth in front of dorsal, 54 inches. ,,midway betwixt snout and dorsal, 52 inches. ,,,,,,dorsal and tail,22,, ,,just before expansion of tail,13,, Flipper.—Length, 16½ inches. ,,per.—Width,5,, Dorsal.—̉Length, 16,, ,,al.—Height, 10½,, ,,al.—Breadth in middle, 7 inches. Tail fins from tip to top, 18 inches. Lower jaw from point to angle of mouth, 9¾ inches.
Sex.—Female. Colours.—Eye, dark brown; pupil round and black. General colour of upper parts of a dark slaty tinge, greenish in certain lights, bluish in others. Colour of upper parts passing through the different shades from slate colour to grayish at the median line, and gradually passing to pure milky white from vent to flippers, but becoming darker on the under side betwixt the flippers. Flippers deep black. White on throat extending to gape, and then over the upper jaw, covering all the nose and forehead except a deep black moustachial patch of pretty regular outline, beginning over the upper part of the nose and extending downwards on each side. Round each eye was a large deep black patch of irregular outline shading off to gray at the edges. The white lines usually assigned as a specific character were altogether absent, with the exception of a silvery white line lying obliquely across the back of the neck. It was about 8 inches long and enclosed a deep black line along its centre half an inch in width. There was one group of seven black spots on left side mid-way between dorsal and belly. The largest of these spots was the size of a half-crown, the smallest the size of a threepenny piece, and they looked precisely as if some one had been throwing ink on the skin. There was a large number of scattered white spots the size of peas, just behind vent and a little to left side. Three white spots outlined in deep black were situated just above middle of left upper lip; several white spots were also to be seen along the edge of left under lip. There were no other spots or lines anywhere on the beast, and those described were anything but conspicuous.
Dentition, etc.—The sides and front of tongue were fringed by a row of upright papillæ of rather horny consistency. No teeth in upper jaw. No teeth visible in lower jaws, but on feeling the left under jaw very carefully with the fingers two hard spots were felt. On cutting into them, these hard spots were found to conceal a couple of small teeth, and behind them another tooth was also discovered embedded in the gums. The other under jaw was not cut into.
Appearance of Head.-Lips very thick and fleshy, but no depression between the snout and lips such as has sometimes been described as seen in other specimens of this Grampus. The great swelling lumps on each upper check, continuing down to and including the lips, was an extremely conspicuous feature, and gave one the strong impression that the swollen appearance was the result of injury or disease. Snout rounded in upper jaw; much pointed in lower jaw.
Skin.—The whole skin smooth and shining, transparent looking in some lights. Very soft and velvety to the touch, the outermost cuticle easily abraded or rubbed off. The skin was easily lifted in little folds betwixt finger and thumb.
There is not much more to say about the Carsethorn specimen of this rare Cetacean, except that I was glad to be the medium of securing its skeleton for the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh. A gentleman resident in the village who was present when the bones were divested of their flesh preparatory to being despatched to Edinburgh, and who examined the stomach, informs me it was quite empty. The same friend also had the curiosity, not to say temerity, to cut off a suitable piece of the flesh and have it. cooked. He tells me "it was dark in colour and tasted not unlike the flesh of a hare, or between that and beefsteak. It was a little peculiar in flavour, but not unpleasant." The blubber produced a little over six gallons of good oil, which is used in the same way, and for the same purposes, as the fishermen and others in this neighbourhood use porpoise oil.
Whether the two specimens of Risso's Grampus described in the foregoing pages entered the Solway in company can only be a matter of conjecture. I have been unable to hear of any of our whammle-net men who noticed such animals in the Firth before their capture, and the fishermen in question are distributed over the comparatively narrow limits of the Solway at every tide. One thing seems very certain to me that any such Cetaceans once passing inside ​Barnhourie Bank and the Robin Rigg would hardly escape many hours from being stranded on one or other of the numerous sandbanks that stretch for hundreds of thousands of acres in every direction, when the surges that swell up with the famous tidal flow of old Solway have once more ebbed again with equal swiftness back into the Irish Channel.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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