226 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 
median line of the snout, 4 about the blowhole, 9 in the right lateral row, and 8 in 
the left lateral row; making a total of 26, the same number as in the Tay whale. 
In the Iceland Humpback examined by Hallas (60, 174) there were 24 dermal 
tubercles on the head, of which 5 stood in the median line, 10 on the right side, in 
two rows, and 9 on the left side, also in two rows. On the mandible were 21 tuber- 
cles, of which 11 were on the right side in a single row, and 10 on the left side. 
From these observations it is evident that while the tubercles are indefinite in 
number and exact location, their general arrangement is the same in the Humpbacks 
of both sides of the Atlantic. 
DORSAL FIN, 
In the Newfoundland specimen, No. 5, the dorsal fin was erect and falcate, with 
a concave posterior margin. The upper part of the anterior margin was also con- 
eave, as if from an injury which had removed a portion of the fin and destroyed 
the regularly falcate shape. This may, however, be an individual variation. (See 
pl. 87, fig. 1.) In specimen No. 6, Newfoundland, the dorsal fin was similar to that 
of No. 5, but the anterior margin was regularly convex, and the posterior margin 
almost straight. There was nothing in the shape of the dorsal in these specimens 
suggesting a boss or knob. The fin was erect and prominent, like that of a dol- 
phin or Finback whale, but thicker at the base. 
In the foetus from Newfoundland specimen No. 6, the dorsal was somewhat 
faleate, the tip curved backward, the posterior margin with a moderate concavity 
or rather S-shaped, on account of a convexity at the base. The tip was not 
thickened. 
The dorsal fin of the Tay River whale, as figured by Struthers (87, pl. 2, fig. 
2) was low, reclined, and rounded; the anterior margin convex, and the posterior 
straight or slightly convex. (See text fig. 72.) The photograph of this whale in 
my possession, on the contrary, shows the fin prominent, erect, and somewhat 
faleate, exactly as in the Newfoundland specimens. 
Eschricht figured the dorsal fin of a Greenland Humpback, or Aeporkak, which 
was sent him in salt by Capt. Holbdll (87, pl. 5, fig. 1). This figure represents the 
fin as an obtuse, thick mass, with an irregularly convex posterior margin. I find it 
impossible to escape the feeling that this fin was imperfect either from injury or 
imperfect preservation, or both. Sars has already expressed the same opinion (80, 
13).! Eschricht published two figures of a foetal Heporkak (37, pl. 3, figs. 1, 2), 
neither of which is like the dorsal of the adult. One of these figures (fig. 2) is 
an enlargement of the dorsal of the fcetus represented in the other (fig. 1). It is 
*Sars’s comment is as follows: “The figure of the dorsal of a Greenland specimen given by 
Eschricht from a preparation in salt is, as already said, quite essentially different [from the normal 
shape] and has rather the form of a low fatty lump than that of a real fin, which led Eschricht to give 
the whale the Danish common name ‘ Pukkelhval’ (Hump-whale). It is likely that the part under- 
goes important variation in different individuals. Yet I should be more inclined to the opinion that 
the example from which the dorsal described by Eschricht was derived had suffered some sort of 
injury in that part, whereby the dorsal became deformed.” 
