 The enormous mass was half buried in the sand, having sunk under its immense weight.The two boys thought the carcass was the remains of a beached whale, as a similar stranding had occurred two years earlier near the mouth of the Matanzas River, located several miles to the south of St. Augustine (see map).The two boys returned to St. Augustine the same day and reported their discovery to a local physician, Dr. DeWitt Webb.