ON THE ORKNEY ANIMAL. 423 



are dried. The base of each cone terminates in a 

 ligamento-cartilaginous ring, about a quarter of 

 an inch in depth, measuring longitudinally * ; so 

 that the sulci do not extend between base and 

 base, but between ring and ring. 



To these rings, on the inner side, is attached 

 the intervertebral tegument ; so that when the 

 vertebras are pressed together, the rings are inter- 

 posed, to protect the soft osseous structure. These 

 rings, and the sulci, are admirably represented in 

 Mr Sime's drawing, which exhibits also a striking 

 likeness of the cartilaginous ridges. 



Some months after reading the above descrip- 

 tion of these vertebrae to this Society, I saw in 

 the London Philosophical Transactions a descrip- 

 tion of two vertebrae of the Squalus maximus of 

 Linnaeus, by Everard Home, Esq. These verte- 

 brae of the Squalus maximus, though on a reduced 

 scale, are similar in size to the vertebrae which I 

 have described, and, like the vertebrae of many 

 .other fishes, have a general resemblance in articu- 

 lation and structure ; but the figure which Mr 

 Home has given, must have been very carelessly 

 and inaccurately executed, if the vertebrae which 

 he has described, and the vertebrae which you 

 have seen, and may still see in the presses before 

 you, belonged to the same species of animal. 



In his figure, we do not observe the concentric 

 cylinders extending from cone to cone, excepting 



Dd 4 



* Plate x. fig. 3,^ 



