An account of the Phoca cristata. 99 



a whaling vessel ; should this prove to be the case, I should 

 be inclined to believe that it is absolutely identical with the 

 Phoca cristata described above. In the most recent works 

 that I have been enabled to consult, I find no description of 

 the Phoca mitrata ; but from the details given by M. F. Cu- 

 vier of its osteology, the following are the most striking dif- 

 ferences : the head, to judge by the plate, No. 38. B., is less 

 than one-half the size of the Phoca cristata; the jaw-teeth are 

 more closely approximated, the furrows in them deeper, and 

 the last two are doubly furrowed. 



Appearances on Dissection of the Phoca cristata. By E. 

 G. Ludlow, M. D. and F. G. King, M. D. Read March 



15, 1824. 



After the minute account of this animal already read by 

 Dr. Dekay, in which so precise a description of the head and 

 teeth is to be found, we have little left to offer. 



The head in general, although strongly resembling that 

 of the dog, has nevertheless a striking peculiarity on its 

 upper surface. 



About two inches from the extremity of the upper jaw 

 on its superior surface, rises a cartilaginous crest, rapidly 

 increasing in height as it passes backwards, being about seven 

 inches in height at its posterior or vertical edge, which is sepa- 

 rated into two planes, by an intervening depression of an inch 

 in depth. 



Its superior edge is slightly convex, and the whole structure 

 is clearly an elongation of the septum of the nose, the true nos- 

 trils opening on each side of it by an oblong fissure. 



This crest rises into the hood, or sac-like appendage of the 

 head. 



