242 DE. J. MUEIE ON THE OEGAJsIZATION OF THE CAAING WHALE. 



dorsal fin greater than in the present fig. 1. Moreoyer a faint depression is given to the 

 occipital region, whereas in mine there is a gradual elevation at the same point. The 

 depth of the root of the tail is exaggerated ; and the pectorals spring quite from the 

 abdomen. If his belly view be contrasted with the present dorsal one (fig. 2), it will 

 be e^ident that the thoracic region is flatter than I have found it, the caudal root 

 thicker, the terminal emargination wider, and the flukes antero-posteriorly narrower. 



III. Pakts related to the Senses. 



1. The Eye and its surroundings. — On first beholding a large Whale, among other 

 things which impress strangeness of aspect to this marine mammal is the seemingly 

 small organ of vision. The narrow elliptical aperture of which and dull-coloured 

 eyeball (at least when the animal is dead and shored) give an odd and sly expression, 

 contrasting unfavourably with those lustrous orbs of most Seals, or even with the wide 

 optics, though lurid hue, of many great fish. John Hunter', always philosophical in 

 his similes, supposed that their locomotion is not great on this account, and considered 

 them as sea soarers compared with birds. 



Situated a little higher than the angle of the mouth, from which its anterior 

 canthus was 4 inches distant, the eye of Glohiceps, as in all other Cetacea, appears 

 extremely diminutive. The palpebral fissure, a narrow ellipse, and without eyelashes, 

 has an extreme length of 1^ inch. The two eyes are 29^ inches apart, as measured 

 following the arch of the head. The horizontal dark-coloured pupil is ellipsoidal, 

 and f of an inch in antero-posterior diameter. 



When the tegument is removed, an external muscular sphincter is brought into view. 

 This representative of orbicularis palpebrarum is only moderately developed, the fleshy 

 fibres being intermingled with fatty tissue. Eapp^ denies the existence of upper fibres 

 in the Porpoise; but my observations both in small and large genera coincide with 

 Stannius' and Carte and Macalister as to their oval figure round the orbit. 



In the Glohiocejjhalus killed near Lewchew, the eye is mentioned as having a 

 "sclerotic nearly osseous; iris dark, but not red or orange"^. In one of the specimens 

 stranded at Dundrum Bay, Gulliver says that " around the eyeball was a firm bony 

 plate in the sclerotic coat"^ In the present specimen the sclerotic certainly presented 

 a dense fibrous texture, where thickest simulating cartilage in appearance, as in other 

 Cete, but no ti-ue bone obtained. * 



2. The Nasal Passages : Homology of the Sacs and adjunct Fleshy Structures. — Dr. 

 Francis Sibson^ has commented " on the Blow-hole of the Porpoise ;" and (excepting, it 

 may be^in the number of muscular layers) my observations on that animal corroborate 



' " Observations on the Structure and (Economy of Whales," Phil. Trans. 1785, vol. xvi. p. 335. 



" Die Cetaceen zool.-anat. dargesteUt, 1837, p. 92. 



' " Beschreibung der Muskeln des Tiimmlers," Miill. Archiv f. Anat. 1849, p. 11. 



' Chinese Repository, ?. c. p. 411. * L. c. p. 66. " Philos. Trans. 1848, p. 117. 



