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GIGANTIC WHALE.

The skeleton of the whalebone whale which was cast ashore at North Berwick last year, and whose measurement so far exceeds the ordinary dimensions of animated nature as positively to require to be seen before being believed, is now in course of preparation, and we believe will be set up in such a manner as to enable scientific men to examine it with every advantage.  The baleen (commonly called whalebone) has been prepared with infinite care and trouble, and will be placed in its original section in the palate.  If there be one part more remarkable than another, it is the appearance of the baleen, or whalebone, when occupying its natural position; the prodigious quantity (upwards of two tons), and, at the same time, mechanical beauty connected with every part of the unique mass, rendering it beyond the power of language to describe, or give the slightest idea of it.  The skull, or brainbone, was divided vertically, with a view to convenience in moving the head (this portion of the skeleton weighing eight tons).  This section displayed the cavity for containing the brain; and thus some knowledge of the sentient and leading organ of an animal, the dimensions of whose instruments of motion fill the mind with astonishment, will at last be obtained.  Results, unexpected, we believe, by most anatomists were arrived at.  The cavity (a cast of which will be submitted to the anatomical public) was gauged or measured in the manner first invented and recommended by Sir William Hamilton, and under that gentleman’s immediate inspection; the weight of the brain, estimated in this way, amounts to 54 lb. imperial weight.  The brain of the small whalebone whale, examined by Mr. Hunter (the specimen was only 17 feet long), weighed about 4 lb. 10 oz.; the brain of the elephant weighs between 6 lb. and 7 lb.; the human brain from 3 lb. to 4 lb.  The total length of the whale was 80 feet; and although Captain Scoresby mentions one which he heard of which was said to measure somewhat more than 100 feet, it is extremely probable that this measurement had not been taken correctly.  The whale examined by Sir Robert Sibbald, nearly a century ago, measured exactly 78 feet; “fourteen men could stand at one time in the mouth; when the tide rose, a small boat full of men entered easily.”—­Scotsman.

[The total length of the whale found dead on the coast of Belgium, in 1827, and whose skeleton was exhibited in London, during last year, was 95 feet.—­See Mirror, vol. xviii. p. 104.]

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FALLS OF THE GENESEE.

[Mr. Fergusson, in his Notes made during a visit to the United States and Canada, in 1831, thus refers to the Genesee Falls, engraved in No. 562 of The Mirror, p. 97 of the present volume.]