220 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



that, although quite recently organized, the receipts from 

 216,000 visitors to the aquarium at Berlin for the year 1871 

 amounted to $40,000. 



SEA-SERPENT. 



Nature quotes from the Natal Colonist the following ac- 

 count, by Mr. Cobbin, of Durban, of a " sea-serpent" seen by 

 him, which we give for what it is worth : " During my late 

 passage from London I saw no less than three sea-serpents, 

 but an account of the last will suffice. On the 30th of De- 

 cember last, on board the Silvery Wave, in latitude about 35' 

 0" S., and longitude 33' 30" E., at 6 20 P.M., solar time, an 

 enormous serpent passing nearly across our bows compelled 

 the alteration of our course. He was at least one thousand 

 yards long, of which about one third appeared, on the surface 

 of the w r ater at every stroke of his enormous fan-shaped tail, 

 with which he propelled himself, raising it high above the 

 waves, and arching his back like a land snake or a caterpil- 

 lar. In shape and proportion he much resembled the cobra, 

 being marked by the same knotty and swollen protuberance 

 at the back of the head on the neck; the latter was the thick- 

 est part of the serpent. His head was like a bull's in shape, 

 his eyes large and glowing, his ears had circular tips and 

 were level with his eyes, and his head was surmounted by a 

 horny crest, which he erected and depressed at pleasure. He 

 swam with great rapidity, and lashed' the sea into a foam, 

 like breakers dashing over jagged rocks. The sun shone 

 brightly upon him, and with a good glass I saw his overlap- 

 ping scales open and shut with every arch of his sinuous 

 back, colored like the rainbow. 12 A, June, 1872, 130. 



DISCOVERY OF A PREHISTORIC CORPSE. 



In digging up a peat-bog in Holstein, not long since, a 

 human body was discovered, almost entirely preserved, and 

 belonging to a period at least as remote as the beginning of 

 the Christian era, if not earlier. It lay in an outstretched 

 position, with the belly upward, with one arm thrown over 

 the breast, and had a wound in the forehead which probably 

 was the cause of death. It was clothed in a garment of 

 twilled woolen material, with broad sleeves, and over it a 

 tunic composed of pieces of sheep and calf skin sewed togeth- 



