ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE. 



133 



bone, though, perhaps, unusually much so in the specimen here represented. Of the remaining 

 fingers the index has three, the middle finger four, the fourth finger three, and the fifth two 

 phalanges besides the metacarpal bones. This is, strange enough, just one phalanx less in each 

 of the digits than in the Cape whale. The distal phalanx of each of these four digits is long 

 and pointed at the end, especially in the third digit, where the long cartilaginous termination, 

 even in the full-grown skeleton, is three times longer than the ossified middle piece. Thus, 

 the last phalanx of each of the digits is longer than the penultimate, while otherwise 

 the phalanges progressively decrease from above in a downward direction, both in length and 

 thickness. 



In conformity with the broad form of the anterior extremities of the Greenland whale, the 

 fingers spread considerably from one another. As usual in the Cetaceans, the thumb and index 

 are placed close to the anterior edge of the fin, while the tip of the index is turned towards 

 its pointed extremity and the end of the minimus towards the obtuse angle of its posterior 

 edge. 



To the comparison given above between Cuvier's measurements of the scapula of the Cape 

 whale and ours of that of the full-grown Greenland whale we shall here add a similar comparison 

 of their anterior extremities. 



Length of the humerus 

 Breadth „ above 



„ „ below 



Length of tlie ulna . 

 Breadth „ above 



„ „ below 



Length of the radius 

 Breadth ,, above 



„ „ below 



Length of the carpus 

 Breadth „ 



Length of the thumb 



„ index 



„ 3rd digit 



4th „ 

 .5th „ 



In the 



In the 







Cape whale. 



North whale. 



Ft 



In. 



0-45 m. 



0-56 m. = 



1 



% 



0-33 m. 



0-35 m. =: 



1 



n 



0-29 m. 



0-32 m. = 



1 



0^ 



0-63 m. 



0-65 m. = 



2 



0| 



0-21 m. 



0-32 m. = 



1 



Oi 



0-25 m. 



0-3o m. = 







% 



0-52 m. 



0-63 m. = 



2 







0-21 m. 



0-24 m. = 







9 



0-35 m. 



0-33 m. = 



1 



Oi 



0-27 m. 



0-25 m. = 







9i 



0-74 m. 



0-67 m. = 



3 



1.' 



0-29 m. 



0-20 m. = 







n 



0-86 m. 



0-83 m. = 



3 



71 



1-06 m. 



1-175 m. — 



3 



8| 



0-75 m. 



0'93m. = 



3 



11 



0-59 m. 



0-64 m. =: 



3 



Oå 



In order to conclude our description of the skeleton of the Greenland whale, we have still 

 only to mention a very small part of it, though certainly one in regard to which our researches 

 have led to very interesting results. 



It is so utterly inconsistent with the laws of the structure of the skeleton that the pelvis 

 of any whale should be such as, in the ' Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles,' it is stated to be in 

 the Cape whale and the Cape hump-back,^ i. e. composed only of an azygous bone situated in the 

 mesial line, or that it should consist even of a single bone, that these statements scarcely deserved, 



Ed. 3, tome v, p. 386 ; Ed. 4, tome viii, 1, p. 303. 



