146 ESCHRICHT AND REINHARDT 



thing, it shows that there is in this respect no marked sexual difference. Now, if we inquire 

 more closely into the nature of the evidence upon which this supposition of the distinguished 

 authors of the memoir rests, it appears to me that it amounts only to this, that so7ne Green- 

 land whales are said to be larger than the male whose skeleton passed under their examina- 

 tion, which larger animals they assume to be females, to avoid the difficulty of supposing 

 that a mature animal can vary in the same sex to such an extent as from forty-six (Enghsh) feet 

 (the length of the skeleton of their small adult male) to fifty-eight feet (the greatest length given 

 by Scoresby, for a whale in the flesh, the sex not being stated). But, in the first place, this 

 length, even according to Scoresby's account, appears to be quite exceptional ; and further, as we 

 are not told whether it was taken along the curve of the body, or in a straight Jine, as in the 

 skeleton, and whether it was measured to the bottom of the notch in the middle of the tail, or, as 

 was probably the case, to the most projecting part of the flukes, and as, moreover, without 

 casting any imputation upon Scoresby's general faithfulness as an observer, we. must allow for the 

 great difficulties attending the measurement of a whale's carcase lashed alongside a vessel ; taking 

 all these circumstances into consideration, I am inclined to attach little weight to this particular 

 case. The real evidence at present before us, so far as it goes, points to about fifty feet as the 

 average length of the adult Greenland whale of either sex, allowing a margin of variation of a very 

 few feet on either side of this. 



The next point upon which the examination of the new skeleton gives results, not quite 

 coinciding with those of Professors Eschricht and Reinhardt, is with reference to the comparative 

 size of the head in the male and female Greenland whale. As before said, the cranium is seven- 

 teen feet long, and the whole length of the skeleton forty-six feet, the former being to the latter 

 as 1 to 0'3695. In the larger male skeleton at Brussels the proportion, according to my 

 measurements as the skeleton is now articulated, is as 1 to O'STSl, or, according to Eschricht and 

 Reinhardt, as 1 to 0"3895; while in the smaller adult male skeleton at Copenhagen it is as 1 to 

 0'3959. Such difference as exists is certainly in favour of the males ; but it must be recollected 

 that these are both somewhat older than the female, and there can be no question that age leads 

 to important modifications, especially to a great increase of development of this part of the body. 

 It is possible that the arch of the upper jaw, and, consequently, the length of the baleen, is 

 generally greater in the male than the female. Indeed, on comparing the figure of the section of 

 the large male skull (Plate V) with the female in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 the difference in this respect is well marked. 



In order to obtain an idea of the relative size of the different portions of the skeleton, before 

 the bones were articulated I had them weighed, with the following results. It will be observed 

 that the skull considerably exceeds in weight the remaining parts of the osseous framework. 



