41 



skull of our animal is as distant in organization and form from 

 that of a dugong, as the cranium of an elephant is from that of 

 one of the Edentata. But the peculiarity of the skull in carni- 

 vorous Cetacea is, that their face is almost entirely formed of 

 the maxillaries and intermaxillaries, the nasal bones being very 

 minute, and out of the ordinary place; while the frontals, 

 separated from each other by the aforesaid predominant 

 bones, are each thrown down on the sides of the head, forming 

 the front side of 2^ fossa temporalis as large as the orbit itself, 

 and still more completely closed. 



The frontal, in our animal, is a heavy quadrilateral piece, 

 with concave sides, one of which forms the top of the orbit. 

 A point of the maxillary comes near to the front angle of this 

 orbit, and its posterior wall is formed by part of the 

 zygomatic apophyse of the temporal, which, however, does 

 not join the post-orbital apophyse of the frontal, but leaves 

 it open in this place. The lower part of the orbit has its 

 front side formed by a short thick triangular jugal, which in 

 our specimen is not quite entire. The fossa temporalis is of 

 a pear-shaped form, the point of which is open, and directed 

 obliquely in front downwards. 



The occiput falls almost vertically from the top of the 

 head. It is sinuated behind on each side, a slight cavity 

 being at the summit. From this it gently projects to form 

 the oval eminence of the occipital condyles. The foramen 

 occipitale is oval ; its vertical height being two inches, and 

 the width one inch and a half. The occiput itself, which is 

 eleven inches high by one foot in width, has its lower edge 

 on each side divided into two lobes, of which the external 

 one makes an acute angle. 



The under side of the skull or roof of the mouth 

 is convex, like that of the true sperm whale, but otherwise 

 presents considerable differences. For instance, only two 

 small points of the intermaxillaries show themselves on 

 each side of the line of the vomer to form the snout, 

 which is almost entirely composed on the under-side of 

 the enormous maxillaries. These have each in their middle 



♦^ 



