ORDER CETACEA. 485 



the Museum of Paris, are three maxillary bones of this 

 animal eight and twenty feet long. 



The occiput is articulated by large condyles to the dorsal 

 spine. The cervical vertebrae are seven in number; the first 

 of which, the atlas, is soldered or pasted to the second the 

 axis. The dorsal are sixty-three, and their union may be 

 compared to an immense beam, extending forty-two or 

 forty-six feet. The last of these next the caudal fin is nine- 

 teen inches in diameter. On each side of the dorsal spine 

 are four ribs, each twenty-one feet in length, and eighteen 

 and nineteen inches in circumference. The first of them is 

 articulated to the sternum, which is wide, especially in 

 front, but its thickness is not considerable. 



The clavicles have no analogy with those of other mam- 

 mifera. A shoulder blade of nine feet long is in the 

 National Museum at Paris. The humerus is short in pro- 

 portion to the size of the animal, rounded towards the 

 summit, and marked by a small tuberosity. 



The cubitus and radius are very much compressed late- 

 rally. 



The carpus is composed of five bones almost hexagonal, 

 disposed in two ranges, one of three, the other of two 

 pieces. The bones of the metacarpus are similarly formed, 

 soldered together, and the five digits have not the same 

 number of phalanges. 



All these bones which form the pectoral fins are so arti- 

 culated that they cannot move one upon the other. There 

 are no muscles to turn the fore-arm, and these bones are 

 united by very long cartilages, which sometimes cover one 

 half of the bones that they unite, and leave no suppleness to 

 the organ which they contribute to form. All this proves 

 that the arms of the Whale were meant as fins or oars, and 

 not intended for the purposes of feeling, seizing, or retain- 

 ing objects. 



The last observation we shall make on the osseous system 



