56 



of the fins were detected by sifting the sand on the beach, 

 and those of the left fin remain still imperfect. As in the 

 true sperm whale, the metacarpal bones appear as the first 

 joints of the five fingers, that of the thumb being the most 

 dilated at the carpal end. 



The phalanges appear gradually to diminish towards the 

 points of the digits, and the right fin is so perfect that we 

 may account the thumb to contain two phalanges, the index 

 six, the middle finger six, the fourth finger four, and little 

 finger three, perhaps only two. 



OF THE PELVIS. 



The pelvis in the Euphysetes, as in Catodon, is composed of 

 four bones suspended in the flesh, but they are of very 

 different form. The two middle ones are quadrangular, each 

 longer than broad, flattish on one side and triquetral or pris- 

 matic at the end where it articulates with the second kind of 

 pelvic bone ; this second kind is a broad subquadrangular 

 bone, thickest at the middle point of its inner side where it 

 articulates with the former, and from that articulation it 

 flattens out into an oval suspended obliquely in the flesh. A 

 suspicion here arises in the mind of any person conversant with 

 Beale's description of the pelvis in his Yorkshire whale, that 

 as his words will so accurately suit the two exterior bones of 

 our Euphysetes, it may be possible that the two middle ones 

 of that specimen were lost, or at least not detected. Indeed 

 these bones, from lying insulated in the flesh of the belly, are 

 difficult to find, and in consequence it is very rare that the 

 few skeletons of Cetacea in museums are provided with them. 



The dimensions of the bones of the pelvis in the right side 

 oi Euphysetes are as follow — 



