195 



16th Aug. 1856. 



After an unusually hard day's work, I succeeded in safely detach- 

 ing the cervical vertebrse of the whale ashore in Copinshay. They 

 are at present safely lying in the sea within a tidal enclosure at 

 Kirkwall, till the crabs and gamniari, and such influences, remove 

 the lašt portions of musele from them. I shall take the whet off 

 your curiosity by telling you that a drawing of the cervical vertebrse 

 of the whale I formerly examined would do for these bones. Though 

 there are some minor differences on a close examination, these are all 

 on the lower side of the bones, viemng them from the direction 

 opposite to the spinous processes. And I think, when you get 

 the specimen, you will feel convinced, on comparing it with that 

 of a Laman whale, that these minor differences are unimportant, and 

 cannot be allowed to interfere with the specific identity of the two 

 whales. 



These differences are as follows : — In tlie Laman whale the supe- 

 rior and inferior transverse processes of the 5th cervical vertebra are 

 united, and the lovrer process of the 6th short; whereas, in the 

 Copinshay whale, the transverse processes of the 5th are not united, 

 and the lower process of the 6th is as long as those of the 3rd, 4th, 

 and 5th. 



Still, with deference I submit, that when all the other resem- 

 blances are taken into acoount, these variations cannot be considered 

 essential. I think it will be more easy to point out specific charac- 

 ters in the bones by the union or disunion of the processes of the 2nd 

 cervical vertebra ; by the comparative length of processes as regards 

 the body of the vertebrse, and by the form and angular aperture of 

 ring, than by the circumstance of the lateral processes after the se- 

 cond being united or not. At any rate, I cannot readily imagine 

 that the union or separation of the 5th, and still less so the length 

 of the lower process of the 6th, can be of great value. In this lašt, 

 the specimen in the Zoological Gardens of Edinburgh and your own 

 set up in the Museum differ, while they certainly resemble each 

 other in every other way, and are evidently of the šame species. 



I feel sure, that drawings of the dorsal aspect of all these bones of 

 all the species knovm to you will show considerable and tangible dif- 

 ferences, especially in the comparative spread of flie processes as 

 you approach the dorsals ; in their varying progression in thickness, 

 — gradual in the Laman and Copinshay whales, sudden from the 

 7th cervical to the Ist dorsal iu P. antiąuorum. 



Our Orkney whales seem to resemble your P. boops in sonle re- 

 spects, but then the processes are 

 longer, and the veing of the 2nd 

 cervical in the Orkney vchales with 

 its perforation is very different from 

 the short development of the 2nd 

 cervical vertebra in P. boops. In 

 P. antiąuorum again, the processes 

 rise from the plane of the body 

 of the vertebrae somewhat thus : — 



