MYTHS AND LEGENDS 429 



probably grows to more than fifty feet in length, and may 

 sometimes be seen swimming with undulatmg movements at 

 the surface of the sea. The famous Sea Serpent, measurmg 

 fifty-six feet in length, that was cast up on the shore of Orkney 

 in 1808 was almost certainly this fish. Other reputed Sea 

 Serpents are believed to be giant Squids or Cuttle-fishes many 

 of the oceanic species attaining to an immense size, and although 

 normally living in the abyssal depths, they are known to come 

 to the surface on occasions or to be stranded on the shore after 

 a violent storm. Very Httle is known of these monsters of the 

 deep, and some of the species have been described only from 

 the semi-digested remains that have been taken from the 

 stomachs of Sperm Whales. It will be reca led that many of 

 the tales of the Sea Serpent describe it as battling with a whale, 

 and the long and sinuous tentacles or arms of these molluscs 

 coupled with their habit of sometimes spouting water, account 

 for the so-called "spouting head and writhing tail. Other 

 objects that might conceivably be mistaken lor a serpent by 

 an untrained observer include a school of porpoises swimn^mg 

 in line, their curved bodies suggesting the sinuous coils ot an 

 eel-like body; two large Basking Sharks, ^^"'"mmg one behmd 

 the other, as is sometimes their habit; a fragment of wreckage 

 or even a long string of seaweed. Dr. Oudemans has Pub shed 

 a most valuable book on the subject, in ^^^hich nearly all the 

 records are discussed at some length, and the available evidence 

 carefully sifted. He concludes that, although niany oi the 

 accounts may be disposed of in one of the ways mentioned above 

 there remain a number which display a certain amount ot 

 general agreement and appear to describe something for which 

 none of these theories will really suffice. What this 'something 

 may be can only be guessed, but Dr. 0»d^„'"=^«^. b;=l'-^^^^\/; 

 be a large mammal allied to the Seals and Sea Lions. Finally 

 mention may be made of a remarkable creature that was 

 Xerved o/the coast of Brazil in 1905 by ^^ --£- 

 naturalists, and described in the Proceedings of the fohgtcal 

 Society of London. "At first," they write, ' all that could be 

 seenias a dorsal fin about four feet long, sticking up about two 

 feet from the water; this fin was of a brownish-black colour and 

 much resembled a gigantic piece of ribbon seaweed_ --^^^ 

 denly an eel-like neck about six feet ^"5 ,\"d f di"/!''^' 

 of a man's thigh, having a head shaped like that of a turtle 

 appeared in fronl of the fin." The creature soon disappeared 

 from view, before it was possible for them to make out the 



