Hand-colored lithograph depicting a bird's eye view (top) and a side view with three men measuring (below), of the Ostend Whale, a dead whale found near Ostend whose skeleton, as a natural history curiousity, toured Europe and the United States throughout the 19th century. In the lower margin are printed the artist attributions and the following text:
"Fig. 1. Baleine du sousgenre Rorqual. (Voy. Cuvier oss. Foss. T. 5, Part 1, P. 365.) Echouee pres d'Ostende le 5 Novembre 1827.
Fig 2. Le m̻me animal vu �� vol d'oiseau. ce cetac̩e est dessin̩ sur le lieu encore enfonc̩ dans le sable �� peu pres d'un tiers de sa hauteur"
In English, "Fig. 1. Whale of the Rorqual family. (Voy. Cuvier oss. Foss. T. 5, Part 1, P. 365.) Stranded near Ostend on 5 November 1827. Fig 2. The same animal seen in a bird's eye view. This cetacean was drawn on site, nearly a third of its height again sunken into the sand."
Below, a scale, and printed, "Echelle wde 26 aunes des Pays Bas, ou 26 m̬tre" (English: Scale of 26 Dutch aunes, or 26 meters)
