APPLICATIONS OF THE MICROSCOPE. 97 



many feet above the present level of the river. 

 The remains are chiefly vertebral ; and it is 

 believed that nearly the entire skeleton may 

 yet be found, when, on the subsidence of the 

 water presently covering the spot, the research 

 can be prosecuted and completed. It was con- 

 cluded that these fossil bones had belonged to 

 a whale; but the conclusion was denied by 

 some. To settle the question, the writer of this 

 little work forwarded a fragment, of what he 

 believed to be one of the cartilaginous vertebral 

 disks of a whale, for examination by Professor 

 Quekett of London. Of date 19th Feb. 1858, 

 this distinguished Microscopist thus replies : 

 " The piece of bone received this morning is 

 certainly part of an intervertebral disk of a 

 large whale, one which, no doubt, was stranded 

 many years ago. From its size, it probably was 

 a Rorqual, which, I think, is the species most 

 commonly cast on shore, at least in the south of 

 England, the Orkney whale not being so large. 1 

 Had you not told me what you suspected the 

 bone to be, I could have told you at the first 

 glance." 



1 See below, Sect. 3. 

 G 



