524 APPEXDIX. 



verse processes below by the angles ; so that 

 there is one vertebra common to the neck and 

 back. In the large Whalebone Whale the first 

 rib is bifurcated, and consequently articulated to 

 two vertebrae. 



The sternum is very flat in the Piked Whale ; it 

 is only one very short bone ; and in the Porpoise 

 it is a good deal longer. In the small Bottle-nose 

 it is composed of three bones, and is of some 

 length. In the Piked Whale the first rib, and in 

 the Porpoise the three first, are articulated with 

 the sternum. 



As a contraction, corresponding to the neck in 

 quadrupeds, would have been improper in this 

 order of animals, the vertebras of the neck are 

 thin, to make the distance between the head and 

 shoulders as short as possible, and in the small 

 Bottle-nose W T hale are only six in number. 



The structure of the bones is similar to that of 

 the bones of quadrupeds ; they are composed of 

 an animal substance, and an earth that is not ani- 

 mal : these seem only to be mechanically mixed, 

 or rather the earth thrown into the interstices of 

 the animal part. In the bones of fishes this does 

 not seem to be the case, the earth in many fish 

 being so united with the animal part, as to render 

 the whole transparent, which is not the case when 

 the animal part is removed by steeping the bone 

 in caustic alkali ; nor is the animal part so trans- 

 parent when deprived of the earth. The bone? 

 are less compact than those of quadrupeds that are 

 similar to them. 



