200 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SEAS 



Oturi Forests is a discovery of less than 40 years, and the 

 sea with its vast areas still uncharted may well harbour 

 some monsters hitherto unknown. One must at the 

 same time take into account the deceptive distances of the 

 open sea and the baffling tricks played by light, wind, cloud 

 and waves upon the human sight. Many a normal 

 phenomena such as a flock of guillemots in single file, 

 the long arm of a big squid, a shoal of porpoises, wreckage, 

 and especially ribbon fish, have been often mistaken for 

 giant sea snakes. 



Accounts of alleged sea serpents are abundant in the 

 literature of all nations and they show no signs of diminish- 

 ing with the passage of time. Appearances of the sea 

 serpent were collected by a Netherlands enthusiast, who 

 tabulated some 250 cases between the years 1520 and 1890. 

 None of these can be called convincing, though it would 

 take a very blase film fan to say the mildest was not startling. 



One of the more recent instances was that of the monster 

 seen from the deck of H.M.S. Deda/us. This creature 

 had a lizard-like head with immense jaws full of long 

 and rugged teeth. Not many years later so reputable 

 a journal as " The Zoologist " published an account of a sea 

 serpent which attacked a party of fishermen in Bally 

 Cotton Bay. On being shot at it disappeared after dis- 

 gorging a shoal of fish, which being handled gave a series 

 of terrific electric shocks. In the same year another, 

 or perhaps the same monster, was seen at death grips 

 with a sperm whale. 



One of the most convincing sea serpent stories — con- 

 vincing because of the public position held by the witnesses 

 — was that connected with the Earl of Crawford's yacht 



