106 ESCHRICIIT xVXD REINHARDT 



it attains its greatest thickness ; from this point it decreases uniformly between each of the 

 following pairs of vertebræ, though even between the very hindmost it is still very con- 

 siderable as compared with the size of these bones. 



All the intervertebral cartilages in the vertebral column of the Greenland whale appear from 

 without to be of such thickness that, when taken together, whether in a dried or in a fresh state, 

 we can hardly help imagining that they must be of great account in measuring the length of the 

 animal. In the tail the intervertebral cartilages often appear even as thick as the vertebræ them- 

 selves between which they are placed. But when in the full-grown skeleton we remove these 

 ligamentous substances, and then measure the length of the column consisting of the 

 vertebræ alone, piled up in their proper order on one another, the whole of the intermediate 

 cartilages will be found to make scarcely more than three feet of the entire length of the vertebral 

 column in a full-grown whale; much less, therefore, than appeared when seen from with- 

 out. The cause of this is obvious, for these cylindrical hgamentous cartilages are far thicker at 

 their external circular margins than at their centres, in which part they are scarcely anywhere 

 thicker than one inch and a half, in most places only half an inch thick, in the dorsal region 

 scarcely above one third of an inch. The intervertebral substances are undoubtedly thicker, 

 comparatively speaking, in skeletons of younger individuals ; but about these we may state with 

 even greater truth, that the distances between the vertebræ seem larger than they really are, 

 because in them the epiphyses of the bodies of the vertebræ look as if they belonged to the 

 intermediate cartilages (see Plate II, fig. 3). 



In order to ascertain the proportionate lengths of the different regions of the vertebral 

 column in the full-grown Greenland whale we have principally been guided by our examination of 

 the forty-four and a half feet long skeleton, because in that, when it arrived at Copenhagen, we 

 still found the intervertebral cartilages mostly in good condition, and not perceptibly di'ied up. 

 The whole vertebral column was then twenty-six feet ten inches. Of this length 



10 inches, or proportionately, ^ij = 0'03 belonged to the 7 cervical vertebræ. 

 6 feet 2 „ „ ^ = 0-23 „ 13 dorsal 



9 „ 8 „ „ ^ =: 0-36 „ 13 lumbar 



10 „ 2 „ „ ^ = 0-38 „ 22 caudal 



The vertebræ of the Greenland whale surpass in weight even those of the great fin-whales and 

 hump-backs, yet they appear, generally speaking, to be less bulky ; and the reason, we suppose, 

 is that the transverse processes are very long in the largest of them, especially in the lumbar and 

 the anterior caudal vertebræ, wherefore the bodies themselves are comparatively smaller, the arch 

 being also broader, so that the articular processes are spread to a greater distance from each other, 

 and the body itself forms a comparatively smaller part of the whole vertebræ. 



As for the rest we can scarcely point out any common distinguishing mark for aU the ver- 

 tebræ of the Greenland whale. They are, on the contrary, rather characterised by different pecu- 

 liarities in each separate region of the vertebral column. 



To begin with the cervical vertebræ, here we immediately find the Greenland whale very 

 markedly characterised by the form and ankylosis of these bones, especially in opposition to the 

 rorquals. Thus especially as regards the transverse processes from the second to the seventh 

 vertebra. These processes are, properly speaking, shaped in the form of a ring in all the whalebone- 



