OF THE SPERM WHALE. 
83 
seventh dorsal vertebra, the canal is 6\ inches in depth, 
and 7 inches wide, — -at the sixth terminal vertebra it 
still continues of a triangular figure, but is only 4 J inches 
in depth, and 3 inches in width,— at the twentieth, the 
canal becomes of an oval form, making a foramen 
through the root of a short and thick spinous process 
large enough to admit one’s finger, which terminates the 
spinal canal, — the other terminal vertebrae have depres- 
sions in their superior surfaces, as if a cauda equina 
was distributed upon them. 
At the inferior surface of the eleventh terminal ver- 
tebra, a range of what may be termed inferior spines 
commences ; they are articulated to the under surfaces 
of the bodies of the vertebrae by a bifid portion of the 
superior end of the process ; th e first piece thus attached 
to the under part of the body of the eleventh terminal 
vertebra, and hanging perpendicularly from it, is 1 foot 
6 inches long, 7 inches in width, and 2 inches in 
thickness ; its width being on a line with the length of 
the vertebral column : these pieces are in number the 
same as the ribs (ten). The second is longer and wider 
than the first , being 2 feet long, 8 inches wide, and 2 
inches thick ; the third is rather shorter, but a little 
wider than the second ; but the fourth is smaller alto- 
gether, and the others gradually decrease in length and 
width, but not in thickness, until the last , which mea- 
sures 5 inches in length, and 5| inches in breadth, and 
is still attached to its vertebra by a double, or bifid 
articulation. 
