56 



bat tlie way iu ^yllicla they are connected with the metacarpal 

 bones is not so certain, as only the bones of the thumb and fore- 

 finger, part of the right fin, were found in situ. Almost all the 

 smaller bones of the fins were detected by sifting the sand on the 

 beach, and those of the left fin remain still imperfect. As in 

 the true sperm whale, the metacarpal bones appear as the first 

 joints of the five fingers, that of the thumb being the most 

 dilated at the carpal end. 



The phalanges appear gradually to diminish towards the 

 points of the digits, and the right fin is so perfect that we may 

 account the thumb to contain two phalanges, the index six, the 

 middle finger six, the fourtli finger four, and little finger three, 

 perhaps only two. 



or THE PELVIS. 



The pelvis in the Eiqyliysetes, as in Caiodon, is composed of 

 four bones suspended in the flesh, but they are of a very 

 different form. The two middle ones are quadrangular, each 

 longer than broad, flattish on one side and triquetral or pris- 

 matic at the end where it articulates with the second kind of 

 pelvic bone ; this second kind is a broad subquadrangular bone, 

 thickest at the middle point of its inner side where it articulates 

 with the former, and from that articulation it flattens out into 

 an oval suspended obliquely in the flesh, A suspicion here 

 arises in the mind of any person conversant with Beale's 

 description of the pelvis in his Yorkshire whale, that as his 

 words will so accurately suit the two exterior bones of our 

 Euphysetes, it may be possible that the two middle ones of that 

 specimen were lost, or at least not detected. Indeed these 

 bones, from lying insulated in the flesh of the belly, are difficult 

 to find, and in consequence it is very rare that the fcAv skeletons 

 of Getacea in museums are provided with them. 



The dimensions of the bones of the pelvis in the right side of 

 Euflysetes are as follow : — 



