SHAWANGUNK HEAD. 115 



generally flattened. At the posterior extremity of this face is situated the 

 great occipital foramen, of a slightly rounded form, and looking rather back- 

 wards than downwards ; its anterior edge is distinctly notched. On each 

 side are seen the rounded condyloid protuberances of the os occipitis, with 

 an articulating surface arching forwards. 



From the condyle extends, in a lateral direction, an inferior, long, rough 

 occipital edge, terminating immediately below the external auditory foramen. 

 In front is the cuneiform process, presenting a strong ridge on its inferior 

 face, a slight excavation on each side of this ridge, and on the external 

 edges a long fissure terminated posteriorly and externally by the internal 

 extremity of the glenoid cavity of the temporal bone, and extending ante- 

 riorly as far forward as the junction of the cuneiform process with the body 

 of the sphenoid. This fissure corresponds with the posterior foramen 

 lacerum : two rounded holes are seen in its course, one near the middle, 

 and another near its anterior termination. The glenoid cavity on each side 

 is separated from this fissure by an inferior prominence of the temporal 

 bone. It is long, and quite narrow ; its length being about seven inches, 

 and its width, from behind forwards, from two to three. Anterior to the 

 eminence separating the jugular fissure from the glenoid cavity, lies 

 the foramen ovale; and, about two inches in front of this, the foramen 

 rotundurn. The union of the cuneiform process with the sphenoid is com- 

 plete. On the body of the sphenoid we see the posterior edge of the vomer 

 separating the posterior nasal opening into two parts, whose edges are 

 laterally surmounted by the pterygoid processes of the sphenoid. The 

 posterior nasal opening is smaller than might be expected, has a quadran- 

 gular form, and measures six inches from behind forwards, three and a 

 quarter transversely. In front of this opening lies the long palatine exca- 



