"I believe I have stated all the facts, afforded by this skeleton, which bear upon your questions. They appear to me to afford no support to the views to which they refer. "Yours very sincerely, (Signed) "JOHN GOODSIR." The conclusion I arrived at is this,--that the actual number of cervical vertebrae in the _Mysticetus_ is, as in most other mammals, seven, and that, notwithstanding their earlier fusion, they are originally quite distinct. FOOTNOTES: [C] It is stated that some of the last of these are of wood. The skeleton in Edinburgh is perfect. [D] "The substance of the brain is more visibly fibrous than I ever saw it in any other animal, the fibres passing from the ventricles as from a centre to the circumference, which fibrous texture is also continued through the cortical substance."--HUNTER, "On Whales," 'Animal Economy,' Palmer's edit. p. 373. [E] In his paper "On the Structure of Whales" (Phil. Trans. 1787), Hunter remarks that the organ of smell "is peculiar to the large and small Whalebone Whales." He further remarks, that, "in those that have olfactory nerves, the lateral ventricles are not continued into them as in many quadrupeds;" and he notices "the want of the olfactory nerves in the genus of the Porpoise."--'Anim. Economy,' Palmer's edit. pp. 372, 373, 376. [F] See Memoirs in the 'Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh' for 1832. Extract of a Letter from Dr. BAIKIE to Sir JOHN RICHARDSON, M.D., C.B., F.R. & L.S., dated 29th October, 1857, Rabba, on the Qworra. [Read January 21st, 1858.] "In natural history my collection is advancing, especially in skins and skeletons of birds. I am collecting skulls of all the domesticated animals, and skeletons of the sheep and goats. I have got a few fish, including a prettily-marked _Diodon_ or _Tetraodon_, probably new, and a _Myletes_ which I did not meet with formerly. The _Siluridae_ are the most abundant fishes; and one species closely resembles the _Hypophthalmus_, figured by Rueppell in his 'Fishes of the Nile and Red Sea.' I have not met with another Polypterus. I shall get a _Lepidosiren_ in the river, and have heard of an electrical fish, I believe a _Malopteruris_, such as I formerly found. I enclose two scales of a fish which is said to grow to the length of 5 feet, but of which I have specimens half that size only,--also a sketch of a curious fish 2-1/2 feet, which I put into spirits; it has neither ventral nor anal fins, a very peculiar caudal, and a slender head, while the dorsal extends along the whole back; eyes very small; teeth numerous and hard, but not sharp." He adds, in a postscript, that he had got the _Lepidosiren_. He had collected 700 species of plants, and numerous fine fruits, which he says "will rejoice Sir William Hooker's heart."