Of the Newport specimen, No. 49599, the Museum has the complete skeleton,
together with external measurements and a photograph. From data at hand
it appears that the animal was originally obtained in Narragansett Bay
about October 30, 1901, and afterwards towed to Fort Adams, near Newport.
A few days later it was sent adrift again and stranded in the harbor of
Dutch Island, near Canonicut Island, which is opposite Newport. While at
Fort Adams its existence was made known to the Museum by Dr. E. A.
Mearns, U. S. Army, and his son, Louis Mearns; and a preparator was sent
to obtain the skeleton. With the aid of Captain Soderman, of the
government tug _Monroe_, he found it at Dutch Island, and reported that
it was a male, 20 feet 1 inch in length, measured along the curves of the
back (18 feet 6 inches in a straight line). The epidermis was nearly all
lacking, but the back appeared to have been black. The length in a
straight line, as reported by Mr. Louis Mearns, was 19 feet. The complete
measurements taken by the preparator, Mr. J. W. Scollick, are as follows:
_External dimensions of Ziphius cavirostris, male, Cat. No. 49599,
U.S.N.M., Newport, Rhode Island._
Ft. in.
Total length, along curve of back 20 1
Total length, in straight line 18 6
Tip of snout to posterior margin of dorsal fin 13 10
Tip of snout to axilla 5 2
Tip of snout to eye 2 5½
Tip of snout to anterior margin of blowhole 2 4
Length of mouth 1 1
Breadth of blowhole 0 5½
Length of pectoral fin, from head of humerus to tip, 2 2
straight
Vertical height of dorsal fin 0 10
Breadth of flukes, from tip to tip 5 3
Greatest girth (estimated) 10 0
The breadth of the pectoral fin, as shown by the skeleton, was 5¾ inches.
The photograph, which is reproduced in Pl. 41, fig. 4, gives a good idea
of the general form of the animal.