called " Steypirey^r " hy the Icelanders, 



337 



the same finger, of the skeleton formerly belonging to Lidth de 

 Jeude, is only a consequence of an injury ; and the number of 

 the phalanges of the four fingers in Balcenoptera Sihhaldii 

 may be stated to be either 4, 7, 5, 4 or (perhaps) 4, 7, 6, 4. 



When, now, we compare with these the number of the pha- 

 langes in the pectoral fin of the " Tunnolik," I must first 

 remark that the figure of the latter given by Eschricht is not 

 quite correct ; nor is his statement in the text of the number 

 of the phalanges* perfectly accurate or quite in accord- 

 ance either with the actual conditions or with the figure f. It 

 is much to be regretted that this pectoral fin, which, at 

 the time when Eschricht received it, was quite complete, has 

 afterwards suffered some damage : the tips of the fourth and 

 fifth fingers are lost, and there are now only four phalanges 

 in the first, and two in the second, of these two fingers. 

 It is therefore impossible to state exactly how great the 

 error in Eschricht' s figure really is ; but there are certainly 

 only four phalanges in the second finger (the index), and 

 but six in the third ; and though the fourth finger, as I have 

 said, is incomplete now, and the original number of the pha- 

 langes cannot be stated, yet it may at any rate be positively 

 inferred, from the form and length of the remaining part, that 

 it was never so long as the third : therefore the woodcut in 

 Eschricht's memoir is incorrect in representing it as being 

 even a little longer than the latter ; but what the cause of the 

 mistake really is, whether the artist has drawn too many pha- 

 langes, or made the phalanges really existing too long, must be 

 left undecided. The formula for the number of the phalanges 

 in the hand of the '' Tunnolik " will therefore be 4, 6, 6 (?), 

 3 (?) ; and as the woodcut cannot be thoroughly depended 

 upon as to the comparative size of the single phalanges, I 

 here add the measurements of the hand in Danish inches : — 



Second finger — 

 Metacarpal . . 

 Pirst phalanx 

 Second „ 

 Third 

 Fourth ,, 



Length. 





5| 



Breadth ir 

 the narrow- 

 est place. 





P 



1| 



* Besides the metacarpal bones, b, 6, 6, 3. 

 t K. D. Vid. Selsk. Skr. ser. 4. vol. xii. p. 382. 



X _ The measurements are only taken from the osseous phalanges ; the 

 cartilages between thera are, as usual, not included. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. ii. 24 



