12 



pectoral fin ten feet nine inches ; the length of the fin five feet six 

 inches ; the breadth eighteen inches. The dorsal fin small, of car- 

 tilage only, conical, the basal length eighteen inches, the elevation 

 twelve inches ; placed eleven feet in advance of the tail. 



The subcutaneous layer of fat varied in thickness from three to 

 five inches. 



The figure at the bottom of page 521 in Mr. Bell's History of 

 British Mammalia and Cetacea, was referred to as a very good re- 

 presentation. 

 . The dimensions of the skeleton are as follows : — 



Whole length 40 feet. 



Head 10 — 



The vertebrae are sixty in number ; viz. seven cer\'ical, fifteen dor- 

 sal, sixteen lumbar, fifteen caudal, and seven caudal bones. Of ribs 

 there are fourteen, the first of which is double-headed, and is at- 

 tached to the two first dorsal vertebrae ; each of the other ribs is at- 

 tached to a single vertebra, and has a single head ; the dorsal ver- 

 tebrae, therefore, exceed the ribs in number by one. 



The rest of the details of the bony fabric, as regards the pectoral 

 fins, &c., correspond precisely with Dewhurst's plate and description 

 of the Ostend specimen, allowing of course for the inferior size of 

 the present animal. 



Mr. Yarrell exhibited, at the request of G. T. Fox, Esq., of Dur- 

 ham, a specimen of a beautiful spiny Lizard, from Texas, — the 

 Agama cornuta of Harlan, Phrynosonia Bufonium and Phrynocephalus 

 Bufonius of other modern authors. The specimen on which Dr. 

 Harlan drew up his description was from the west of the Rocky 

 Mountain Range. 



A paper was then read, by Mr. Blyth, entitled " A Summary 

 Monograph of the species of the genus Ovis," in which the author 

 recognized nine species, besides indicating others as more or less 

 doubtful. 



The Argalis of Asia and America were provisionally considered as 

 the same, under the appellation of Ovis ammon, as also the Kam- 

 tschatka sheep of M. Eschscholtz, which Mr. Blyth suspected to be 

 only an individual slight variety ; and accordingly, he traced the 

 geographic range of this animal from Asia through Kamtschatka and 

 the Aleutian Isles to the Rocky Mountains of North America, and 

 southward upon that continent to California, where there was reason 

 to believe it occurred, together with the true Californian species de- 

 scribed by Mr. Douglas. In Asia he followed it southward to the 

 Himalayas, but suspected that the Ovis ammon mentioned by dif- 

 ferent authors as inhabiting the Caucasus and Taurus, referred to a 

 distinct species which he had to describe. The Ovis Californiana 

 was next noticed ; and then a superb new species, believed to be from 

 Mount Taurus, the horns of which were suggested to bear every ap- 

 pearance of having supplied the model which ancient sculptors follow- 

 ed in tlieir representations of Jupiter Ammon, and which therefore it 

 was j)roposed to designate 0. sculpiorum. Mr. Blyth then proceeded 



