The Sun.
London, England, 1809-03-31 00:00:00

A II'HALE.

Yesterday. the ,curious were gratified hz the exhi-
bition of the enortnous fish which we yesterday men-
tioned, of this species, in a barge on the South' bide
of the River, between Blacktriars and London
bridges, 'A spcdacle so unusual in this latitude, at-
tratited, for many hours, some thousand speaators,
who crowded round the barge in bOats, and fur-
nished a brisk rind most produetive trade-as well to
the 'exhibitors as to the watermen, who conveyed
them , to. beh9ld. this stopendous monster of the deep.
Many seamen who saw it, and have been repeatedly
Occupied in the Greenland- fishery, allege it to be
a yOung one, not,tnere. than a year old; yet its di-
mensions are as fallow :
Its extreme lengit) from the lower jaw to the end
of its tail; 70 feet 6'inches; from lower jaw to the
end of the body at the tail, tio feet : lower jaw longer
than the upper jaw, I foot 4 inches, end of upper
jaw to its eye, 14 feet ; front upper jaw in us dersal
fin, .48 'feet 2 inches ; length of dorsal tin at the
base', 4 feet; height of the dorsal fin, 2 feet ; -from
body to the end of the tail, 7 feet, 6 inehei; extre-.
mity of. the tail,.*:, feet; circumference of the body,
at the dorsal fin; 21 feet ; eye placed trom the spira-
cle, b feet.; ktigth of its mouth from the lower. jaw
I 6 .feet 6 inches ; length of pectoral fin, 6 feet
breadth of pectoral fin, 9 feet ; longitudinal lines,
(almost straight) beginning under the month to the
middle of the fish ;: length of its eye, 5 inches; co-
lour of ..its laming,: whitish forward, .black behind;
distance of the eye to its mouth, 5 inches ; 64 feet
to the pectoral tin from back-bone t'outer 'skin peel-
ed oft- thickness of fine writing-paper; from one
eye Ad the other, p feetici inches.; breadth of, the
lines on its belly,. a inches; orifice of its, ear, 3
inches ; froco its eye to the tar, 3 feet 2 inches. •
From Which proportions, in a sucking fish of on-
ly a year old, those not skilled in the Natural: His-
tory of, such creatures, or . accustomed to see them
in great variety, miy•fbrm some conception of what
a whale mast be-4;ns years of maturity. It is pro.
flounced by judges to be the galena Bones, or pike;
headed species.. It completely tills the, cavity of
the, West country bsrgeon board of which it is ex-
hibited,, and its tail projeCta near four yards outside
the stern, of the vessel.
It was killed on ,the 25th inst. in the river Thames,
at Sea ,leach,..; some miles below ,Gravesend, by Mr.
John Barnes, a Pilot of the latter place, who was
going in his boat clown to the Note, and observing
the water agitated unusually by the Motions of the
„pith
.44zeroachqd it within swiyel shor, and fired
Ott ante .differetit-iline4;- the ie-Cond shot.pwbed
through the fish's tail, and the third mortally wound-
ed it tci , the body, when by a sudden and violent
plunge a-heed, it •run upon a shoal near the beach,
and was left nearly dry Itt lorov water hur hours
elapsed between the •time the fish' was wounded
until it was completely dead. It was towed the next
tide to the beach off Gravesend, Where it. was ex-
hibited during four' :days. •

The appearance of whales in. the river Thames,
though rave, is by no means unusual. Gratnpus4,
hide d, have brawn •often _;seen so high as Black wall,.
and even London Bridge, In thernctnory of inany
.persons, residing near, the foimet:,.place, lour have
been. seen thsre,at one tittle, sporting and spouting
up the_w4ter to, a.considerable height; and in the
year 1780, a whale of 90 feet in length was killed
tieor the same place assthat now
It may be well, as a rnattcr ot curiosity, to gratify
the. public
.of; the tiletrsiliolis, e'er insatiable after
rarce shPws, with tli,:.4Jihition of this wooler of
the amine kitigdon, the prudence of bringing
into the centre of a poptqtrii city, tor the mete gl%l-
- of getters, W
a ulfaer of -such. bntir, to a
state of putivaaion, corOderAtioti.
Thi,t stench was in i it is wok known
'plitrefac,:tion 4.:oriiiii,:tices the whale tnotiv.:nt
lite is exticd.

LONDOt4 17rinicd by It ICAit D H tßßlS'oof tio.t4,lMartlett.c.oti r, - tico ; aril
At tlio suti-Okirice, Nu. it 2, Slrbtad ; wt,t;r Advertisonents, (..)rdor