ON THE GREENLAND EIGHT-WHALE. 105 



feet lono- one, at the extreme point of the tail (where in our iUustration Plate II, fig. 1, it has 

 been added), so that only one of our five individuals remains (the newborn one), in which the 

 number may with certainty be stated not to have exceeded fifty-four. As to the number of 

 vertebræ the Greenland whale is accordingly inferior to the Cape whale, in which the number, 

 according to Cuvier, is fifty-nine. Of the rorquals, B. musculus has sixty-three, the Greenland 

 hump-back [Megaptera hoops, Eabr.), only fifty-three, the Vaagehval {Balænoptera minor, Knox), 

 forty-eight vertebræ. 



Of ribs, thirteen pairs were most certainly found in the smaller of the two full-grown 

 individuals, and in the newborn one. In the foetus we found on the right side a fourteenth 

 rudimentary one, which was attached to the transverse process of the twenty-first vertebra by 

 means of a hgament, whereas no trace of any such rib is visible in the opposite side. That the 

 same was the case in the larger of the two full-grown individuals, we may, perhaps, be permitted 

 to infer from the circumstance that a single rib-like bone, only twenty inches long, was sent with 

 the rest, which did not admit of any other interpretation. But only twelve pairs of ribs were 

 found in the young individual, and the extremely careful preservation which this skeleton 

 had CAddently undergone in all other respects, as well as still more the length and form of the 

 twelfth rib of either side, afford us good reason to suppose, that really in this case only twelve 

 pairs existed, or that, at least, the thirteenth was rudimentary. 



If we consider the first chevron bone, or hæmapophysis, as the limiting point between the 

 lumbar and caudal regions, and supposing thirteen pairs of ribs to be the normal number for the 

 Greenland whale, then of its fifty-five vertebræ, seven will be cervical, thirteen dorsal, thirteen lumbar, 

 and twenty-two caudal vertebræ. If, however, we refer the vertebra to the posterior extremity 

 of which the first chevron bone is affixed, to the caudal series, we shall of course have seven 

 cervical, thirteen dorsal, twelve lumbar, and twenty-three caudal vertebræ. We shall, however, 

 prefer the former of these computations, the more so as the anus, that may justly be said to 

 mark externally the limits between the abdomen and the tail, is situated directly beneath the 

 first chevron bone. To subdivide the caudal vertebræ into those provided with hæmapophyses 

 and those without them, can only serve to show how far towards the point of the tail the 

 preparation of the skeleton has been perfectly made. We have only received ten of these arches 

 with either of our two large skeletons, but in the foetus we have found them (in a completely 

 cartilaginous state) as far as between the forty-seventh and forty-eighth vertebra, to the number 

 therefore of fourteen. 



The seven cervical vertebræ are always ankylosed (sometimes even also with the first 

 dorsal vertebra), and this is not only the case in older animals, in which these seven vertebræ 

 together form one inseparable osseous mass, but also in the newborn specimen and in the foetus, 

 in which they form one mass of cartilage, as undivided as the former. This ankylosis 

 therefore belongs to the original and normal formation of these parts, and we can scarcely 

 venture to compare it with the more casual one between the last cervical and the first dorsal 

 vertebra, and most certainly not with the mere pathological union, which occurs not unfrequently 

 in animals and man. Ankylosed, and accordingly quite immoveably united with each other as 

 the seven cervical vertebræ are, yet a layer of intermediate cartilage will be found, even in the 

 full-grown individuals, between the sixth and the seventh, and still more between the latter and 

 the first dorsal vertebra. This ligamentous intervertebral substance increases in thickness in the 

 remaining course of the vertebral column down to the anterior caudal vertebræ, between which 



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