THE ORDER CETACEA. 99 



was nearly seven feet. The socket of the eye was fully 

 two inches and a half in diameter. 



The skin was black on the back; but towards the 

 belly the colour changed to whitish. The cuticle was 

 very fine ; the true skin, soft, spongy, and of consider- 

 able thickness. 



The whole skin of the thorax and upper part of the 



belly, was plaited or folded. The sulci, or plicee, as Sir 

 Robert Sibbald calls them, were about two dozen in 

 number. They extended from the lower lip to about 

 four feet beyond the swimming-paws. On the under 

 jaw, they ran obliquely downwards; but on the belly 

 they had a straight longitudinal direction ; on the fore 

 part of the body they were uniform and parallel, but 

 diverged a little towards their termination behind. The 

 flencers, having found little or no blubber under the 

 plaited skin, had left a considerable portion of it un- 

 touched.* 



The back was rounded next to the head ; a little before 

 the dorsal fin, it began to assume a somewhat angular 

 shape, and this form was continued till a subordinate 

 short ridge marked the commencement of the tail. The 

 flattened or extended part of this member was, as in other 

 species, horizontal, and divided into two lobes. The 

 breadth, measuring between the extremities of the 

 lobes, was no less than ten feet ; and its depth was 

 nearly three feet. 



The swimming-paws, measuring from the tip to the 



* The use of these folds in the skin of the thorax, which long was a 

 problem, has now been ascertained. They are calculated to permit the 

 animal to swell up a large pouch or bladder, placed in the anterior part of 

 the body. When this bladder is expanded, the folds disappear, and the 

 animal appears as if it was striped, the covered interstices of the folds 

 being of a paler colour than the rest of the skin of the thorax. 



ii 2 



