ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE. 55 



We know that the bodies of the vertebræ are ossified in the same manner as the long bones, 

 that is, first in the middle portion, then in each of the epiphyses, here in the shape of circular 

 bony plates, after which the growth in length is still continued in the part not yet in a state of 

 ossification, between the centre-piece and the epiphyses. When at length this part also is 

 ossified, so that the three portions form one single continuous piece of bone, then the growth 

 in length is quite finished. But when all the individual vertebræ cease to grow, the 

 growth of the whole vertebral column must have stopped; and that the jaw-bones should 

 still continue increasing in length is, at any rate, most improbable. We must, then, be 

 guided by the well-known fact that the ankylosis of the vertebral bodies with the epiphyses 

 forming their extremities is a certain sign that the skeleton has belonged to a full-grown animal. 



Now, this sign is really to be found in one of the skeletons that we have been able to 

 examine, but, strange enough, it is not in the largest of them, which is forty-seven and a half 

 feet long, the head being eighteen and a half feet long, but it is in the one mentioned as No. 2, 

 which is only forty-four and a half feet long, its head being seventeen feet seven inches long. 

 In the larger skeleton the union of the vertebral bodies with the epiphyses is, indeed, 

 nowhere so loose as to have rendered it necessary to nail them on in fitting up the skeleton, j^et it 

 was not, particularly in the thoracic vertebræ, of greater firmness but that they might have been 

 separated by a small amount of force. The vertebral bodies and the epiphyses do not yet form 

 one solid mass of bone, and as long as that is not the case a growth in length is still 

 possible. 



It must, then, be considered as a matter of fact that some Greenland whales are full grown 

 though their heads are at least one foot, and the whole body at least three feet, shorter than in 

 other individuals of the same species. We do not deny that the figures given as the results 

 of our measurements of the smaller individual maybe found to be somewhat too small ; but this is 

 certainly not the case in the head at all events, and can only be so in very small degree in 

 the vertebral column, especially for the following reasons. No vertebra is wanted, not even in 

 the end of the tail ; for, in conformity with the general care taken in the whole preparation, the 

 last eleven vertebræ were still found united by the concentric ligamentous intervertebral sub- 

 stance, and the very last was still united with the skin of the notch between the two expansions 

 of the tail. It cannot be denied but that the intervertebral substance may have shrunk a 

 little, but by this means the total length of the vertebral column can hardly have been shortened 

 by more than an entire foot ; for the intervertebral substance was by no means dried up, and, 

 like the last caudal vertebræ, the remaining vertebræ, too, were still united in pairs in natural 

 coalescence, in^consequence of which it was easy to place them all at the proper distance from 

 each other. The eleven caudal vertebræ that were still united measured just after we had 

 received them, in the middle of September, 1860, three feet five inches, the interposed liga- 

 mentous substance being still very soft; two months afterwards, the same substance having 

 become dry, no alteration was yet distinguishable in the length of the piece; but by the 

 middle of April, 18G1, or seven months afterwards, it had shrunk to the length of three feet two 

 inches. 



We therefore suppose that we are right in stating that some Greenland whales, at least, do not 

 attain a greater length than forty-four and a half feet, or perhaps forty-five feet (forty-six 

 English feet, or 14'12 metres), although it seems that others may grow longer, even by as much 

 as a third. But another point must be here considered. It is a matter of fact that the small yet 



