6 



complete sternum. Our matei'ials for description became thus 

 so far complete. 



The skeleton of the first of these two whales, which, as said 

 before, was a male, has been erected on strong iron supports, 

 and the cartilaginous substance into which the bones of Cetaceei 

 so readily pass, and which occurs so plentifully between the 

 vertebrae, has been carefully replaced by gutta-percha substi- 

 tutes, after drawings taken carefully by me on the spot where 

 the carcass was cut up. 



The whole length of skeleton as set up is thirty-three feet 

 six inches, from which if three feet one and a-quarter iuch be 

 subtracted for the length of the intervertebral cartilages, there 

 will remain a total length of bone in the skeleton of thirty feet 

 four and three-quarter inches. The whole length of the head 

 from snout to occiput is nine feet six inches. In the " Ossemem 

 Fossiles," Cuvier has not given us an exact comparison between 

 the whole length of skeleton and the length of the head in the 

 sperm whales he examined, because neither of his skeletons 

 were quite entire. His most perfect skeleton was the one 

 purchased by him in London, and which must be considered as 

 typically to belong to the true sperm whale, or his Pliyseter 

 macroceplialus. Now all that he says of the whole length of 

 this is, that it was about fifty-four feet long, " to which two or 

 three feet more may be added for the intervertebral cartilages." 

 Beale does not state whether the Yorkshire skeleton is set up 

 with any allowance or substitute for the size of the intervertebral 

 cartilages, or whether it consists of the bones alone, but he 

 states the extreme length from snout to tail to be forty-nine feet 

 seven inches. However, I am inclined to believe that this is the 

 joint length of the bony vertebrae alone, because he states that 

 the animal was measured shortly after death by Dr. Alderson, 

 and found to be fifty-eight feet six inches ; and nine feet seems 

 to be too great a difference between the length of the living 

 animal and its skeleton, unless we are to make allowance 

 for the length of the intervertebral cartilages. Assuming this, I 

 offer the following table as showing the comparative measure- 

 ments of those three skeletons. 



