215 



figure published in The Illustrated London News for October 28, 

 1848, is said to be an accurate copy of that drawing. 



Captain M'Quhae estimates the length of its body at the surface 

 of the water, ** d jieur d'eau, at the very least equal to sixty feet, 

 no part of which was to our perception used in propelling it through 

 the water, either by vertical or horizontal undulations. It passed 

 rapidly, but so close under our quarter, that had it been a man of 

 my acquaintance, I should easily have recognized his features with 

 the naked eye ; and it did not, either in approaching the ship, or 

 after it had passed our wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its 

 course to the S.W., which it held on at the pace of twelve or fifteen 

 miles an hour, apparently on some determined purpose." 



If we may judge from the engraving, the cranium is very convex, 

 of moderate size, with a short obtuse muzzle, a mouth reaching 

 beyond the eye ; which last organ is round, and of* a moderate size. 

 The surface of the body is represented as smooth, and destitute of 

 scales — of which they were enabled to judge, because it passed close 

 under the quarter of the ship. It was in sight for twenty minutes. 



The description certainly does not belong to any Ophidian ; and 

 as certainly militates against an opinion thrown out by Mr Owen, 

 that it might be a specimen of the Leonine seal, which has, it is 

 alleged, occasionally reached those latitudes. The Leonine seal 

 never exceeds twenty-five feet in length, and such would have a 

 circumference at its shoulders of twenty feet, while this appears to 

 be eel- shaped, with a diameter of not more than fifteen or sixteen 

 inches behind the head. The mane, too, of the male of the Leonine 

 seal extends only over the head and neck ; but in the other, it ex- 

 tended down the back. 



With all deference to so eminent a naturalist as Mr Owen, I 

 humbly conceive that his conjecture respecting the identity of 

 Captain M'Quhae's animal with the Leonine seal, is not more pro- 

 bable than Home's identification of the Basking shark with the 

 Orkney animal. 



Both M'Quhae's and the Orkney animal would appear to be 

 cartilaginous fish, totally different from any genus known to natu- 

 ralists. 



2. Further Researches on the Crystalline Constituents of 

 Opium. By Dr Thomas Anderson. 

 VOL. III. s 



