76 BA.IKIE ON NATURAL HISTORY Or WEST COAST OF APBICA. 



is impossible to determine from the preparation whether the 

 arches of the fourth and fifth vertebrae had been cut away in dis- 

 secting the parts, or whether they have shrivelled up in drying ; 

 but as the skeleton was very carefully prepared, .and as these two 

 arches are deficient (at least laterally) in the adult Mysticetus, I 

 presume that the cartilaginous matrices were at least extremely 

 delicate in the foetus. 



" I believe I have stated all the facts, afforded by this skeleton, 

 which bear upon your questions. They appear to me to afford no 

 support to the views to which they refer. 



" Yours very sincerely, 

 (Signed) " John Goodsie." 



The conclusion I arrived at is this, — that the actual number of 

 cervical vertebrae in the Mysticetus is, as in most other mammals, 

 seven, and that, notwithstanding their earlier fusion, they are ori- 

 ginally quite distinct. 



Extract of a Letter from Dr. Baikie to Sir John Eichaedson, 

 M.D., C.B.., r.E.&L.S., dated 29th October, 1857, Eabba, 

 on the Qworra. 



[Eead January 21st, 1858.] 



" In natural history my collection is advancing, especially in 

 skins and skeletons of birds. I am collecting skulls of all the 

 domesticated animals, and skeletons of the sheep and goats. I 

 have got a few fish, including a prettily-marked Diodon ovTetraodon, 

 probably new, and a Myletes which I did not meet with formerly. 

 The Siluridce are the most abundant fishes ; and one species closely 

 resembles the HypophtJialmus, figured by EiippeU in his ' Fishes 

 of the Nile and Eed Sea.' I have not met with another JPolypterus. 

 I shall get a Lepidosiren in the river, and have heard of an 

 electrical fish, I believe a Malopteruris, such as I formerly found. 

 I enclose two scales of a fish which is said to grow to the length 

 of 5 feet, but of which I have specimens half that size only, — also 

 a sketch of a curious fish 2^ feet, which I put into spirits ; it has 

 neither ventral nor anal fins, a very peculiar caudal, and a slender 

 head, while the dorsal extends along the whole back ; eyes very 

 small; teeth numerous and hard, but not sharp." He adds, in a 

 postscript, that he had got the Lepidosiren. He had collected 



