104 



great extent disappeared. With the exception of a few parts withered and 

 shrivelled up by the sun, showing more dark against the layer of fat of a 

 lighter brown which formed the greater part of the surface, it was only at 

 the tail and on the pectoral flippers that a dark-grey epidermis was still 

 present. 



The abdominal layer of fat divided into longitudinal strips, which was 

 turned upwards, still showed a variety of dull-yellow, white and brown, but 

 the natural colour was no longer to be clearly made out. It also seemed to 

 me that the abdominal furrows were broader and fewer in number, than are 

 to be observed in fotographic representations of Balaenoptera miiscii- 

 lus L. 



On a first view the fusiform or spindleshaped outline was apparent, in 

 spite of the collapsed parts; this shape is obviously an adaptation for the 

 purpose of rapid unhampered locomotion through the water. 



Next, the head was proboscidiform or snoutshaped and tapering to a 

 point, as a result of which the resistance of the water in rapid forward 

 movement through the element is a minimum. 



Though the lower jaws had been pushed apart by the natives for the 

 purpose of unfixing the baleenplates, and were therefore no longer in their 

 natural positions, it was still clearly noticeable that they project some way 

 in front of the upper- jaw. 



A neck properly so called is not present. The aggregate length of the 

 cervical vertebrae is accordingly but 92 c.M. or 3.4 % of the total length of 

 the body; in addition the cranium also stretches backward for some distance 

 beyond the atlas-vertebra. The head and trunk passed insensibly into each 

 other, thus obviating irregularities of the shape of the neck such as would 

 have increased friction in swimming. 



The penis also, which in this case was 180 c.M. long, could be enclosed 

 within the periphery of the body by a fold of the skin so as not to impede 

 rapid movement either. But, as eventually happens in many whales that are 

 washed ashore dead, also in our specimen the organ had been completely 

 forced outward. The gases generated in the process of decomposition, which 

 had filled the abdominal cavity and had caused the wall of the belly to be 

 powerfully swelled out, had made the skin- plait normally containing the 

 penis bulge out, so that even the muscular fascicles at the basal part of it 

 were clearly visible, as is shown in the illustration (fig. 44). 



