22 



cesses on each side, and the spmous process has an anterior 

 articular, which being bifid, serves for locking one 

 vertebra into the other, by receiving the inclined edge 

 of the vertical apophyse of the preceding vertebra into its 

 bifurcation. 



The next eight or lumbar vertebrae, have their spinous 

 processes wider at the summit than at the base. These are 

 also more oblique and elongated than in the dorsal vertebrae, 

 and their articulars rise gradually on their front edge, as in 

 the dolphin tribe. These spinous apophyses at first increase 

 to the centre of the lumbar vertebrae, and then begin to 

 decrease in size. 



The transverse apophyses of the vertebrse are at first 

 merely simple tubercles of the articular processes, and they 

 do not assume the form of distinct apophyses until the three 

 or four last dorsal vertebrse. They then increase in size, 

 until the two or three last lumbars, when they continue 

 diminishing to the tail. 



The under side of all the vertebrae after the fourth lumbar 

 is strongly carinated. 



The caudal vertebrae are twenty-four in number, and may 

 be divided into two sets. The first thirteen have upright 

 spinous processes, gradually diminishing in size, and disap- 

 pearing with the lateral transverse apophyses. These thirteen 

 vertebrse have attached to them twelve long inferior bifid 

 processes,* called V bones, each nearly perpendicular to the 

 vertebral axis, and articulated, or at least, connected by strong 

 cartilage with the bodies of two consecutive vertebrae. The 

 third of these V bones is the longest, being one foot four inches 

 long ; but the first and last are only four inches each. While the 

 fore part of the spine, is as above described, made strong by 

 having the consecutive dorsal vertebrae locked into each other, 

 so that the hinder part of the vertical apophyse of one is received, 



* The first of these V bones is truly bifid in our Botany whale, and the arms 

 are of unequal length, but in the Sydney whale this V bone is not bifid, but 

 only a subconical process. Is this a difference of sex or of species ? Or, are 

 our two animals varieties of one species ? 



