322 THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



seal. This opinion is too important to bear abridgment, 

 and must be given in extenso : — 



" The sketch [a reduced copy of the animal seen by- 

 Captain M'Quhpe, attached to the submerged body of a 

 large seal, shewing the long eddy produced by the action 

 of the terminal flippers] will suggest the reply to your 

 query, * Whether the monster seen from the Lcedalus be 

 anything but a saurian V If it be the true answer, it de- 

 stroys the romance of the incident, and will be anything 

 but acceptable to those who prefer the excitement of the 

 imagination to the satisfaction of the judgment. I am 

 far from insensible to the pleasures of the discovery of a 

 new and rare animal ; but before I can enjoy them, certain 

 conditions — e.g., reasonable proof or evidence of its exist- 

 ence — must be fulfilled. I am also far from undervaluing 

 the information which Captain M'Quhse has given us of 

 what he saw. When fairly analysed, it lies in a small 

 compass ; but my knowledge of the animal kingdom 

 compels me to draw other conclusions from the pheno- 

 mena than those which the gallant captain seems to have 

 jumped at. He evidently saw a large animal moving 

 rapidly through the water, very different from anything 

 he had before witnessed — neither a whale, a grampus, a 

 great shark, an alligator, nor any of the larger surface- 

 swimming creatures which are fallen in with in ordinary 

 voyages. He writes : — ' On our attention being called to 

 the object, it v/as discovered to be an enormous serpent," 

 (read ' animal,') ' with the head and shoulders kept about 

 four feet constantly above the surface of the sea. The 

 diameter of the serpent ' (animal) ' was about fifteen or 



