144 FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



museum, indicates a species approaching to the preceding, but 

 with much more elongated muzzle. This is Cuvier's Ziphius 

 longirostns. 



Fossil Bal^eNuE. 



It is evident, from divers accounts, that more or less consi- 

 derable portions of the skeletons of the larger cetacea have 

 been found embedded in various places, and among them there 

 are many attributed to the balsenae. But the authors of these 

 accounts have rarely given drawings or descriptions sufficiently 

 precise to enable us to determine the species. Such is the case 

 with some bones found in Clackmannan, in Scotland, in a mu- 

 tilated state, but which indicated an individual of considerable 

 size. As they were found, however, only at eighteen inches 

 depth in a recent alluvion, it is more than probable that they 

 belong to a living species. 



But two skeletons of a whale, of the sub-genus of the ror- 

 quals^ were discovered by M. Cortesi, in Lombardy. The 

 first in 1806, on the eastern side of Monte Pulgnasco, six hun- 

 dred feet below the summit, which is, itself elevated twelve 

 hundred feet above the plain. In this part the hill is formed 

 of regular strata of bluish argilla, inclined towards the north, 

 and filled with n)arine shells, exactly like those on the opposite 

 hill, where the same naturalist discovered the skeleton of the 

 dolphin which we have already mentioned. 



Excepting some ribs a httle scattered, the bones of this ske- 

 leton were found in their natural connexion. It was surrounded 

 by innumerable shells, and especially by a small species of the 

 oyster. There were also many teeth of the squalus there. 

 The head, &c., presents all the sub-generic characters of the 

 rorqual, with specific ones that are incontestable. These con- 

 sist principally in the dimensions and conformation of the 

 lateral parts of the frontal bone, and in the more speedy union 

 of the transverse crests at the anterior part of the same bone 

 into a middle and longitudinal crest. 



