"204: NORTH-CAKOLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



being simple, are all referred to the genus balaena. Other 

 parts of the skeleton of this genus have been formed, as the 

 vertebrae, ribs, lower jaw, &c. 



The first of the bones (Fig. 26) which I propose to describe 

 FIG 26 is the largest, and resembles in 



form the same bone belonging 

 to the right whale, (the balaena 

 mysticetus.) 



In this specimen the thick in- 

 voluted part is thickest at its 

 extreme posterior end, and gra- 

 dually diminishes to within three 

 fourths of an inch of the flatish, 

 expanded or eustachian part of the tube. 



Its surface, as it passes backward, and corresponding to the 

 span between the lobes in the cachalot, becomes slightly con- 

 cave, and the whole surface to the boundary backwards and 

 forwards to the channel, which separates it from the concave 

 expanded portion, is irregularly wrinkled ; these wrinkles in- 

 crease in strength to its junction, with the latter part, where 

 the line of division is distinctly defined. At the posterior part, 

 there is a strong indentation, somewhat in the form of the letter 

 U, surrounding the part where the expanded part springs. The 

 thinner expanded part forms an arch, concave within, and quite 

 regularly convex without; at the extremities it forms expanded 

 hooks. The concave surface widens from the posterior to the 

 anterior end, and is widest just within the margin. This bone 

 differs from the same in the right whale, in its convex portion 

 being lower and not above the level of the concave cavity 

 beneath the arch ; and being, also, perfectly separated by a 

 change in the appearance of the part, and also by the perfect 

 smoothness of the concave surface of the overarching wall, 

 which, in this B mysticetus, is very rugged. 



Its length is 3| inches, and width 2J, and belonged to a 

 large whale, though probably not the largest. It is, however, 

 very bulky. Cuvier remarks, that the ear bones of the 

 Balaeonoptera are very small in proportion to the size of the 



