OF THE SPERM WHALE. 
75 
being by capsular ligament, but by intermediate cartilages 
connected to each bone. These cartilages between the 
different bones of the fingers are of considerable length, 
being nearly equal to one half of that of the bone, and this 
construction of the parts gives firmness, with some degree 
of pliability to the whole. As this order of animals can- 
not be said to have a pelvis, they of course have no os 
sacrum, and therefore the vertebrae are continued on 
to the end of the tail, but with no distinction between 
those of the loins and tail. But, as these vertebrae 
alone would not have had sufficient surface to give rise 
to the muscles requisite to give motion to the tail, there 
are bones added to the fore part of some of the first ver» 
tebrae of the tail, similar to the spinal processes on the 
posterior surface. 55 
Having discovered, through the kindness of Mr. 
Pearsall, of Hull, that the skeleton of an adult male 
sperm whale had been preserved at the seat of Sir Clif- 
ford Constable, Bart., at Burton-Constable in Yorkshire, 
about nine miles north of Hull, I embraced an oppor- 
tunity which offered itself to visit it, for the purpose of 
gaining permission of Sir Clifford to inspect this enor- 
mous and magnificent specimen of osseous framework 
which adorns his domain. The whale to which this 
skeleton belonged was cast on the coast of Yorkshire, at 
a place called Turnstall, in the Holderness, in 1825, and 
which was claimed by Sir Clifford, he being lord of the 
seigniories of Holderness. Its skeleton was preserved, 
and was articulated only about two years since, I believe 
principally under the superintendence of Mr. Wallis, of 
