Kirby, R. S. [Editor]; Kirby, R. S. [Oth.]: Kirby's Wonderful And Eccentric Museum; Or, Magazine Of Remarkable Characters: Including All The Curiosities Of Nature And Art, From The Remotest Period To The Present Time, Drawn from every authentic Source. Illustrated With One Hundred And Twenty-Four Engravings. Chiefly Taken from Rare And Curious Prints Or Original Drawings. Six Volumes (Vol. V.) (London: R.S. Kirby, 1820)

‘218 kirby’s wonderful museum.

fishermen, who vainly endeavoured to drag it on shore, to
obtain the assistance of seven horses and several men ; and
for many hours before it expired on the sea-beach near
Abbotsbury, in Dorsetshire, it justly lay as an object of sur-
prize and astonishment to all the beholders; and it has
since attracted the notice of several considerable and re-
spectable personages. Another circumstance which conveys
an additional idea of the magnitude of this enormous car-
cass, is, that a hole being made in the bottom, near the hind
legs, of the skin, large enough to admit a man or woman,
who can nearly walk upright in it, several persons have
positively entered the body this way, and come out again
through the aperture of the mouth.

SURPRISING INSTANCE OF THE QUICKNESS OF
VEGETATION IN COLD CLIMATES;
THE* FOLLOWING BEING A CALENDAR OF A SIBERIAN OR
LAPLAND YEAR.

Snow melts ....... June 22
Snow gone ... July 1
Fields quite green . 9
Plants at full growth .’.. —- 17
Plants in flower . 25

Fruits ripe . August 2
Plants shed their seed . 10
Snow . 18
From August 18, to June 22, snow and ice.
Thus it appears, that from their first emerging from the
ground to the ripening of their seeds, the plants take but a
month; and Spring, Summer and Autumn, are crowded into
the short space of 56 days.