of Edinburgh, Session 1881 - 82 , 
519 
as its length before being flensed. Although the condition of the 
epiphyses proved that the animal had not reached adult life, or 
probably attained its full dimensions, yet this skeleton is larger and 
more advanced in its ossification than the other skeletons which 
have been described. The Leyden specimen is said to have been 
32 feet long, and Professor Flower gives its skeleton as 29 feet 
7 inches, without the intervertebral discs, for the thickness of which 
an additional 2 feet should be allowed. Professor Eudolphi states 
that the Berlin skeleton is 31 feet 1 inch Ehenish measurement.- 
The young skeleton in Bergen described by Lilfjeborg is 30 feet 2 
inches; and Professor Vain Beneden names 32 feet as the length of 
the specimen in the Brussels Museum. From these measurements, M. 
Van Beneden concludes that this species of whale does not appear to 
exceed 35 feet in length. But the dimensions of the specimen now 
before us, which is obviously not an adult, would lead one to say 
that this animal may attain a length of 40 feet, or even more. 
Whilst larger than B . rostratcc, it is considerably smaller than B. 
musculus , and still more than B. sibbaldii. 
Spine. — The vertebrae numbered in this specimen fifty-six ; and as 
the last caudal was only I-| inch in its transverse and \\ in its antero- 
posterior diameter, it is probable that all the vertebrae were secured. 
The formula was as follows : — C 7 D 14 L 14 Cd 21 = 56. In the Leyden 
specimen there were also fifty-six vertebrae, the two last caudals 
being fused together, viz., C 7 I) 13 or 14 , L 16 or 15 , Cd 20 . Eudolphi 
states that the Berlin skeleton had fifty-four vertebrae, though 
Eschricht says fifty-five, and one was probably missing. Lilljeborg 
states that the young skeleton in Bergen had fifty -five vertebrae, 
viz., C 7 D 13 L 14 Cd 21 . In the Brussels specimen the terminal caudals 
were lost, but the vertebrae present were C 7 D 14 L 15 , and fifteen 
caudals. The Bayonne skeleton had only fifty-four vertebrae, out 
the animal rtas young, and the two terminal caudals were probably 
not ossified, Fifty -six is probably, therefore, the normal number of 
vertebrae, and of these fourteen are dorsal, so that there are fourteen 
pairs of ribs, which is the number present in my specimen. The 
vertebral formula, therefore at once distinguishes B. borealis from 
the other species of the genus; for in E. rosirata the formula is 
C 7 D n L 13 Cd l7 = 48, and there are only eleven pairs of ribs. In 
B. musculus the formula is C 7 D 15 L 15 Cd 25 “ 62, and there are, as a 
rule, fifteen pairs of ribs. In B. sibbaldii the vertebrae are sixty- 
