91 



the width of the body of the vertebra ; the lateral process of the 

 second cervical has a small, nearly centrai perforation, and this per- 

 foration gradually becomes larger on each succeeding vertebra, until 

 in the sixth it nearly occupies the whole disc of the lateral process, 

 the seventh being only found with a narrow elongated process frora 

 the upper edge, the lovver process being reduced into the form of a 

 snicdl tubercle. 



The Plymouth specimen is travelling the country, curiously 

 mounted in three caravans (the first containing the head, the second 

 the thorax, and the third the middle of the tail), so as to exhibit the 

 parts of the skeleton in their proper situations \vhen the caravans 

 are placed one after the other with their ends removed, and the cer- 

 vical, lumbar, and caudal vertebrse suspended betvveen or beyond 

 the m. 



This specimen was found floating on the sea in a decomposed statė 

 on the 20th of October, 1831, in Plymouth Sound, and is said to 

 have been 102 feet long and 75 feet in circumference, but most 

 likely the abdominal cavity was distended by internal decompo- 

 sition. 



The lumbar vertebrse are thick and large ; both these characters 

 mušt render this Finner niuch more povverful and active in the \vater 

 than any of its allies. The lower jaw 1 7 feet long ; the blade-bone 

 32 inches by 51 ; the upper arm-bone 20 inches long by lOį vvide; 

 the lovver arm-bone 31 inches long. The lumbar vertebrse are 11 

 inches long and 14 inches wide ; the first rib 59 inches long and lOį 

 inches wide at the sternal end. The chest-bone is 28 inches -vvide and 

 18 inches long. 



In this skeleton the proprietor has placed a blade of Greenland 

 whalebone {Baloena mysticetus) on one side, and several of South Sea 

 ■vvhalebone (Baleena austraiis) on the other side of the upper jaw, in 

 the place of the true baleen of Physalus. 



There is a second skeleton, which most probably belongs, or is 

 very nearly allied to this species, exhibited at Black-Gang Chine, on 

 the south side of the Isle of Wight, which u-as caught near the 

 Needles. It was 75 feet long, of a greyish colour. 



The skull is 1 6 feet 7 inches long, 5 feet wide at the orbitai notch ; 

 the lower jaw 16 feet 9 inches long ; the sternum 26 inches wide and 

 14 long; the upper arm-bone 24 inches long, the lower 33 inches 

 long. 



This skeleton chiefly diflFers from the former in the bones of the 

 arms being rather longer, though the body is one- third shorter; 

 but the length of the Plymouth specimen may be over-estimated. 



** The transverse apophyses of the cervical vertebra short, of the third, 

 fourth, Jifth and sixth separate. Rorciualus. 



2. Physalus (Rohqualus) Boops. 



The transverse apophysis of the second cer^dcal vertebra thick, 

 short, converging, but separate at the end ; of the other cervical 



