664 MR. J. W. CLARK ON EARED SEALS. | Dec. 7, 
fined ; but for some distance behind it the hairs are not more than 
one eighth of an inch long, and closely adpressed. Below, the bare 
portion is T-shaped, about 23 inches long, and 1? inch broad at its 
widest part. The nostrils (figs. 3 and 4, a) are separated by a space 
12 inch long by 3 inch broad above, deeply suleated by a median 
furrow (fig. 3,4). The skin to the right and left of this is marked 
by delicate strise, crossing each other in different directions. The 
Otaria forsteri 2, nose, seen in profile. 
a, nostril. 
nostrils are vertical at first, and then diverge at almost a right angle 
from their former direction. They are not, as might have been 
expected, hollowed out in the bare portion of the snout, but are 
external to it; and their outer side is covered with short hairs, which 
extend for some distance within their cavity. 
On dissecting off the skin, a remarkable disposition of the nasal 
cartilages is seen. These I have been able to examine only in the 
young skull (fig. 5, p. 665). 
The “septum nasi” is strong, and apparently immovable. On 
each side of it, the cartilage which forms the side of the nose is re- 
flected into a fold (fig. 5, a), wider in the centre than it is at each end. 
This fold, which is thin and loose, appears to be easily capable cf 
dilatation, and to disappear completely when the nostrils are fully 
expanded. Below this there is a second, but much smaller fold (fig. 
5, 6), extending for only half the distance along the ‘‘septum;” and 
behind it, close under the preemaxilla, there is a further expansion 
into a sort of “bulla,”’ quite isolated from the two folds above de- 
scribed, and apparently incapable of dilatation (fig. 5,¢). It opens 
independently by a narrow opening into the nasal cavity. This system 
of cartilages is kept in position by a ligament (fig. 5, d) attached to 
the bony, peg-like prolongation of the przemaxilla at its symphysis. 
In the skull of this specimen, 5 inches in length, the cartilages are 
