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NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 

 FIG. 25. 



LOWER JAW OF A BALAENA OR WHALE. 



On the Meherrin, near Murfreesborough, I found portions 

 of three lower jaw-bones belonging to the genus Balaena, to- 

 gether with many vertebrae, all of which appear to belong to 

 one species. 



These jaws are imperfect, the anterior part the left lower 

 jaw is smooth, gently covex, and curved on the outside, but 

 rather flat inside. The wide upper margin is perforated with 

 three holes penetrating the jaw in a slightly descending 

 course, and terminating anteriorly in an edge produced by a 

 champering of the inside extremity, and rounded from the 

 base up to the upper edge, which is grooved for six inches. 

 They are 3J inches wide and 2 inches thick, and nearly 

 straight. All the posterior parts of the jaw had been lost, and 

 only two feet obtained. It is impossible to refer these frag- 

 ments of jaws to either species which furnished the ear bones, 

 as neither of these specimens were obtained at this locality. 

 But the vertebrae and jaws belonged to one species, and it is 



