GREAT NORTHERN RORQUAL. 139 



tions to the present stock of information on this 

 subject ; and to both of them we are indebted for 

 the liberty they have given us of supplying the ac- 

 companying accurate representation of the skeleton 

 (Plate vi.), which cannot but interest our readers, 

 and for which we thus beg them to accept our best 

 thanks. 



According to the short account published by 

 Mr. F. Knox, the following are a few of the measure- 

 ments of the specimen : 



Total length of the skeleton . 78 feet 



Length of the head over the vertex 21 



Length of the bone of the cranium 19 



Length of the vertebral column 57 



Number of vertebrae 

 Number of ribs 

 Length of longest rib, the 6th 

 Weight of the skeleton . 



65 

 15 pair 

 11 feet 

 28 tons. 



The larger vertebra were fourteen inches in the 

 diameter of their bodies, and from six to seven feet 

 from tip to tip of their transverse processes; they 

 gradually lessened towards the tail, till they did not 

 exceed a hen's egg in bulk. A vertical section of 

 the skull exhibited a part of its walls more than 

 three feet in thickness. 



It is a specimen of the same species, No. 4 of the 

 above list, which forms our Plate v., the skeleton 

 of which was exhibited in London in 1833, and 

 is now we believe being exhibited throughout the 

 United States of America. We apprehend we may 

 safely state this to be the skeleton of the largest 

 animal that has ever been preserved, and, like the 



