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Now, before the back becomes dry, press the points of two fingers firmly, yet not uncomfortably, upon the back of the neck at the base of the skull; thence move gradually downward, by frequent touches of the same firm but gentle character, keeping one finger on each side of the spinous processes, until the whole length of the spine has been, in this manner, passed over.
Once or twice little William had succeeded in getting the fish in his fingers; but the slippery creature, armed also with its spinous fin-wings, had managed each time to glide out of his grasp; and it was still uncertain whether a capture might be made, or whether after all they were only to be tantalised by the touch and sight of a morsel of food that was never to pass over their palates.
The end applied to the mouth is bound round with a small silk-grass cord to prevent it splitting; while the other is strengthened by having the seed of a nut, with a hole cut through it, secured round it. The arrows, from nine to ten inches long, are made from the leaves of a species of palm, or from the spinous processes of the patawa, pointed as sharp as a needle.
The pistol-ball entered the back 1 1/2 inches to the right of the spinous process of the 6th dorsal vertebra, and passed upward and very slightly inward toward the median line. Its track could be followed only 1 1/4 inches.
The immediate river banks were clad with sedge, and the broad leaves of the nymphaea, a plant like the calamus of Asia, but here used only as a toothpick, began to oust the rushy and flaggy growth of the lower bed. The pink balls of the spinous mimosa, and bright flowers, especially the convolvulus and ipomaea, illuminated the dull green.
An Indian club about Christmas-time will yield, if properly worked, an abundant harvest of queer tales; but at a gathering of Americans from the uttermost ends of their own continent, the tales are larger, thicker, more spinous, and even more azure than any Indian variety.
In the young ones, and even in those that stand in a thick shady forest, it presents a very shaggy appearance, and is completely hidden by the bases of the old leaves that have decayed and fallen off. From the margins of these bases grow spinous processes of nearly three feet in length, which point upward.
Now, Captain Anerley, I entreat you to consider whether it is wise to take the thorn so from the rose. If I had so sweet a place, I would plant brambles, briers, blackthorn, furze, crataegus, every kind of spinous growth, inside my gates, and never let anybody lop them. Captain, you are too hospitable."
The most esteemed part of the animal is the hump, called by the Canadians bos, by the Hudson's Bay people the wig; it is merely a strong muscle on which nature at certain seasons forms a considerable quantity of fat. It is attached to the long spinous processes of the first dorsal vertebrae and seems to be destined to support the enormous head of the animal.
The scapula resembles that of the cetacean Hyperoodon, but the supra- spinous fossa is larger and more seal-like; as is the humerus, which differs from that of the Cetacea in presenting true articular surfaces for the free jointing of the bones of the fore-arm.
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