REPORT ON THE SEALS. 13 



transverse ligament was covered by a much narrower plate of cartilage. The transverse 

 process was very short and pointed. 



The dorsal vertebras had low spinous processes, those of the 2nd and 3rd being the 

 most prominent. They projected slightly backwards. The transverse processes were 

 thick and strong in the anterior and middle regions, but posteriorly they had almost dis- 

 appeared. Notwithstanding the relative disappearance of the transverse processes in the 

 last five dorsal vertebras, each possessed a large articular surface for a rib in the region 

 where the transverse should have been, so that throughout the series the vertebrae 

 possessed both an articular surface or surfaces on the side of the body for the head of a 

 rib and one for the tubercle. The last five dorsal vertebras had only a single facet on 

 each side of the body, which was placed at its anterior part. Anapophyses were very 

 faintly marked in the 11th to the 14th vertebras. Metapophyses were no more than very 

 slightly indicated in any. Only the more anterior and posterior dorsal vertebras were 

 keeled on the ventral surface of the body. 



Each lumbar vertebra had a transverse process directed downwards, forwards, and 

 outwards. The spine was strong but low. The mammillary processes were short and 

 rounded and directed forwards and outwards. The anterior articular processes were 

 slightly concave and directed upwards and inwards, the posterior convex and directed 

 downwards and outwards. The bodies were elongated antero-posteriorly and faintly 

 keeled on the ventral surface. 



The sacral vertebras were apparently three in number. The 1st was massive, 7 "2 cm. 

 in antero-posterior diameter, and 16 "5 cm. in transverse diameter at the base. Its 

 lateral articulation for the ilium was ear-shaped below, and rough above for the great 

 sacro-iliac ligament. This bone diminished rapidly in transverse diameter from the base 

 to the posterior surface. Its neural arch was complete in the larger animal, but the 

 laminae had not met in the young female. The 2nd sacral vertebra was 6 - 6 cm. in 

 antero-posterior, and 97 in its greatest transverse diameter. Its neural arch was com- 

 plete in both pelves. At first I thought that it had a slight articulation laterally with 

 the ilium, but a fresh examination leads me to say that it did not quite reach it. In 

 addition to the articulation between the bodies it articulated in front with the 1st sacral 

 by a pair of truncated processes springing from the pedicles, and situated ventrally to the 

 proper anterior articular processes, and behind it articulated with the 3rd sacral by a 

 corresponding pair of processes. The inferior and superior sacral foramina were situated 

 ventrally and dorsally to these processes. The 3rd sacral vertebra was smaller than the 

 2nd, and had in both pelves a complete neural arch. The epiphyses between the bodies 

 of the 1st and 2nd and the 2nd and 3rd sacral vertebras had fused with each other, but 

 had not ankylosed to the bodies of the vertebras to which they belonged. 



I have referred ten vertebras to the caudal region. The first caudal had a neural 

 arch, the next one had a neural groove, the laminas not being united ; the rest consisted 



