﻿EELIS SPEL^A. 87 



The very wide and massive transverse process is composed, as usual, of the di-, par-, 

 and pleur-apophyses, the distal and ventral portion being the latter (figs. 1', 1"), and the 

 proximal and dorsal the former. Between these and their attachment to the neura- 

 pophyses passes the canal for the vertebral artery (y), which thus perforates the base of 

 the process in a longitudinal direction, having its distal orifice (fig. 1", v) on the 

 superior or dorsal surface, close to the external edge of the axial articulation, and its 

 proximal in the infero-lateral surface (fig. \,v). The vestibule leading to this orifice is 

 shared also by the smaller foramen that perforates the diapophysis horizontally. The 

 canal does not at this point as in the hyaena perforate the diapophysis vertically, but 

 it passes round the proximal edge of the process in a dorsal direction, to the orifice of 

 the larger foramen which perforates the upper part of the neurapophyses close to the 

 zygapophyses, and gives a passage at once to the vertebral canal and the sub-occipital 

 nerve (fig. V, s). 



The arrangement of these canals is precisely the same in Eelis, Lutra, and Canis ; but 

 the anterior canal, which is in those animals the simple deep groove above described, is 

 arched over by an inward prolongation of the anterior edge of the diapophyses in Ursus 

 and some other carnivora. M. de Blainville states 1 that a difference exists in this bone 

 between the lion and tiger, which we have not been able to verify. " 1/ atlas offre 1' orifice 

 d'entree du canal carotidien bien plus marginal que dans le lion." We do not know to 

 which orifice of the vertebral artery this alludes, but we are unable to find any constant 

 distinction in the positions of the openings of either of the foramina of this bone in either 

 of the above animals ; and allowing for such individual variations as we have met with in 

 them, we can see no difference between the fossil and recent forms in this respect. 



The roughened surface below the large ventral foramen is the principal origin of 

 the "levator scapulae" " transverso-scapularis" of Straus-Durckheim, and also of the 

 proximal root of the " rectus anticus capitis major." Within this again is the lesser 

 muscle of the same name as the last, the two acting together as flexors of the neck. 



In the figures 2 given by M. de Blainville of the atlas in lion and tiger considerable 

 differences appear to exist in the outline of the transverse processes. We presume that 

 M. de Blainville found, as we have, that these differences were not constant, as he has 

 not alluded to them in his text. It appears to us that the form of the bone, as seen 

 in the English and German specimens, and that of the transverse process in the latter, is 

 about intermediate between those of the lion and tiger as represented in M. de BlainvihVs 

 plate. 



We have represented the Somerset bone in three aspects, from which, perhaps, a 

 better idea of the exact form is given than by the most elaborate description. 



The great surface afforded on the dorsal aspect by this bone indicates a very 

 great power that must have existed in the " obliquus superior" muscle, which is inserted 



i 'Ost. Felis,' p. 28. 3 'Ibid.,' pi. xi. 



