Figure 317 has the general appearance of a loop. The looping ridge A, at the center, has an appendage B abutting upon its recurve. The abutment is at right angles and therefore spoils the recurve. The pattern is a tented arch.

Figure 318 is a tented arch which approaches both the loop and the whorl type patterns. It cannot be considered a whorl, however, as the recurve on the left is spoiled by an appendage (figs. 58 and 59). Nor can it be a loop because there is no ridge count across a looping ridge. The pattern, then, is a tented arch of the type possessing two of the basic characteristics of the loop and lacking the third. The delta and the sufficient recurve are present but the ridge count is missing.

The Science of Fingerprints — Part 30

Figure 319 seems at first glance to be a double loop. It will be noted, however, that the inner delta formation would be located upon the only looping ridge of the upper loop formation. Since the delta would be located on the only recurve, this recurving ridge is eliminated from consideration. The pattern is classified as a loop.

The Science of Fingerprints — Part 30

Figure 320 is a loop of two counts, with the delta at B. There is a ridge making a complete circuit present, but point A cannot be used as a delta because it answers the definition of a type line. It should be considered a delta only if it presented an angular formation. Placing the delta upon the recurve would spoil that recurve.

The Science of Fingerprints — Part 30

Figure 321 shows two separate looping ridge formations appearing side by side and upon the same side of the delta. The core in such case is placed upon the nearer shoulder of the farther looping ridge from the delta, the two looping ridges being considered as one loop with two rods rising as high as the shoulder. The ridge count would be four (fig. 49).

Figure 322 is an accidental whorl. It is classified thus because it contains elements of three different patterns, the loop, the double loop, and the accidental. In such case the order of preference governs. The delta at the left is point A. The delta at the right is point C. This point becomes the delta since it is the point nearest the center of the divergence of the type lines. Point B is eliminated from consideration as a delta since type lines may not proceed from a bifurcation unless they flow parallel after the bifurcation and before diverging.