210 



placed, like those of some of the shark family, farther from the 

 centre of the abdomen than in ordinary fishes. Indeed one of the 

 witnesses states that " the wings of the animal were jointed to the 

 body nearer the ridge of the back than they appear in the drawing." 



The portion of the anterior fin or wing, which was attached to the 

 oraoplates, consisted of cartilaginous rays ; and when such a struc- 

 ture of fin is partially separated by commencing decomposition, the 

 rays might easily, to the eyes of the uninitiated in natural science, 

 seem like toes or fingers. 



Even the great Cuvier admits this resemblance, when describing 

 the fins of fishes : — 



*' Des rayons plus ou moins nombreux soutenant de nageoires 

 membraneuses, representent grossierement les doigts, des mains, et 

 des pieds." 



As much of the value of the descriptions of the Orkney animal 

 rests on the character and credibility of the individuals who saw it 

 most entire, I may be permitted to state that I personally knew 

 the three principal witnesses, Thomas Fotheringhame, George 

 Sherar, and William Folsetter, to be men of excellent character, 

 and of remarkable intelligence. They were not ignorant fishermen, 

 as the witnesses were represented to be ; but two of them were of 

 the better sort of farmers in that part of Orkney ; and the first and 

 the last of them were also very ingenious mechanics, much accus- 

 tomed to the use of the foot-rule, the instrument employed in 

 measuring the animal. 



They were men of such honour, intelligence, and probity, that I 

 can have no doubt of the correctness of any statement they made of 

 their impressions of what they had so carefully observed. 



It was, therefore, not without surprise, that some months after 

 these accounts were sent to London, I read a paper by Mr Home 

 (afterwards Sir Everard), in which he recklessly sets aside the 

 evidence of the persons who saw and measured the animal in its 

 most entire condition, as to its dimensions of length and thickness ; 

 and maintains that it was nothing but a Basking shark {Selache 

 maximum /), which he supposes the love of the marvellous had mag- 

 nified so enormously in the eyes of those whom he is pleased to call 

 *' ignorant f^shermen.^^ Unfortunately for Home's hypothesis, the 

 Basking shark was probably far more familiar to those men than to 

 himself ; for it is often captured among the Orkney islands ; and its 



