188 ' THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



The ribs rise on both sides in an arch to the back, and where they are joined to 

 the vertebrae of the back by amphiarfhrosis, as they are in a man, they extend down- 

 ward like a bow, and in the ])lace where they are Joined on both sides to the vertebrae 

 they make a double hollow on the back. 



At the twenty-sixth vertebra the tail begins, and continues with thirty-five ver- 

 tebrae. The tail grows perceptibly thinner toward the fin. It is not so much fiat as 

 rather somewhat quadrangular, for all the vertebrae of the tail have two epiphyses 

 [zygapophyses] and four processes. Of these the lateral processes are broad, flat, and 

 blunt at the point. The spinous process oti the dorsal side or spine {2)rovesiiiis superior 

 in (lorso sen spina) is sharpened; the lower one is a broad, flat bone, like unto a Greek 

 lambda. This is joined by a cord to the main body of the tail and is fastened to it 

 with very strong ligaments and tendons. As a result of this quadruple position the 

 muscles of the tail fill these cavities of the vertebrae and the angles between the 

 processes, and so the tail itself gets the form of a square oblong with obtuse angles. 



For the rest the tail is thick, very powerful, and ends in a very hard, stift", black 

 fin, which is not divided into rays, but solid, and is in substance like prepared whale- 

 bone, and consists of nothing but layers, one upon the other, as if one solid piece. 

 This fin is frayed out for a distance of 9 inches from the extremity, and is something 

 like the tins of fishes that are spined with a ruder sort of spines. The fin itself that 

 ends the tail is 78 inches wide or long, 7.3 inches high, and 1.5 inches thick, and is 

 inserted in the muscles of the tail as if by gomphosis, or a triangular canal.' 



The fin of the tail is somewhat forked, and both cornua, differently from the tail 

 fins of larger sea fishes, as the shax-k and the like, are of the same magnitude. In this 

 respect it agrees with the whale. And so the caudal fin is parallel with the sides, as 

 is the case of the phocaena and balaena, and not with the back, as is the case with 

 most fishes. With a gentle sidewise motion of its tail it swims gently forward ; with 

 an up-and-down motion of the tail it drives itself violently forward and struggles to 

 escape from the hands of enemies who are trying to draw it in. 



The strangest feature of all, in which this animal difters from all other animals 

 both of land and sea and from amphibia, is its arms, or, if you please, its front feet ; 

 for two arms, 26.5 inches long, consisting of two articulations, are joined immediately 

 to the shoulders at the neck. The end of the humerus is joined to the scapula by 

 arthro(li(t. 



The ulna and radius are like a man's; the ulna and radius terminate bluntly with 

 tarsus and metatarsus. There are no traces of fingers, nor are there any of nails or 

 hoofs; but the tarsus and metatarsus are covered with solid fat, many tendons and 

 ligaments, cutis and cuticle, as an amputated human limb is covered with skin. But both 

 the cutis, and especially the cuticle, are much thicker, harder, and drier there, and so 

 the ends of the arms are something like claws, or rather like a horse's hoof; but a 

 horse's hoof is sharper and more pointed, and so better suited to digging. On the 

 back {supine) these claws are smooth and convex, but underneath they are fiat and 

 hollowed out in a way, and rough with countless very closely set bristles, half an inch 

 long and hard like a brush. 



'There is an evident omission here, as these measurements wonlrt give the animal an absurdly 

 narrow tail, wliereas we know from the references to the power of the aiiiuinl, as well as from the 

 figures that have been preserved, that the flukes were broad and powerful. The vertebra! and their 

 muscles lie in the fibrous mass of the (hikes as if driven in.— Ed. 



