84 



BAL^NIDiE. 



the preceding one ; and the lower processes of the foiirth vertebrft 

 are similar, but much smaller stiU, and also shorter ; they are con- 

 fluent together at their base, and with the base of the process of the 

 second \'ertebra. The other vertebrse are without any lower lateral 

 processes. The neural canal is very large, nearly circular in front, 

 being almost as high as wide ; at the hinder end it is tfansversei 

 trigonal, nearly four-fifths as wide as the width of the articulating 

 surface of the first dorsal vertebra, and atout two-thirds as high as 

 broad. The outer surfaces of the united arches are very convex and 

 broad, with a broad triangular disk in front marked with a central 

 keel ; and the upper surface is keeled, with convex sides behind. 



This mass is so unlike the mass of the cervical vertebrse of the 

 Greenland specimen of Balcena Mysticetus va. the College of Surgeons 

 (which, through the kindness of the Council of that body, I have 

 been enabled to examine and figiire), that I am inclined to think it 

 may belong to another species, and is probably the cervical vertebraa 

 of the whale which Eschricht has described under the name of 

 Balcena Biscayensis. They differ in the form of the lateral processes 

 of the atlas and other vertebrae, and in the manner in which they are 

 soldered together, and especially in the external form of the neural 

 arch. 



Fig. 4. 



Cervical vertebrae of BdUena Mystieetus. Greenland. Mus. Coll. Surg. 



It has been observed at Peterhead, 1682 (Sibbald). ? Tynemouth 

 (Willughby). Coast of Zetland, occasionally (Barclay i see Boll, 

 B. Q, 518). 



There are a skull and a complete skeleton, from Greenland, in the 

 Museum of the CoEege of Surgeons ; a skeleton at Copenhagen, and 

 another at Brussels ; a skull of the adult at Kiel ; and the head of a 

 young animal at Leyden. 



" The magnificent skeleton of Balcena Mysticetus in the Brussels 

 Museum is the only one to be seen at present in any museum in 



