248 SNAKES. 



Journal of Science, 1835, was also an excellent paper. One 

 of the best digests is that given by P. H. Gosse, in his 

 Romance of Natural Histoiy, of the ed. i860. This author, 

 after weighing all the published evidence both from ordinary 

 and scientific sources, and presenting it in a well-arranged 

 and lucid form, sums up as follows : — 



* In conclusion, I express my own confident persuasion 

 that there exists some oceanic animal of immense propor- 

 tions, which has not yet been received into the category of 

 scientific zoology ; and my strong opinion that it possesses 

 close affinities with the fossil enaliosaiiria of the lias.' 

 - Having respect for the opinion of so thoughtful a writer, 

 and further encouraged by the fact that some of our most 

 eminent physiologists have not thought it beneath them to 

 give their attention to the various serpentine appearances 

 which from time to time are seen at sea, and that the 

 majority of them believe in the possibility of an unknown 

 marine reptile, let us accept this idea as the basis of an 

 endeavour to lay before my readers another summing up 

 of evidence gathered from the still more recent writings on 

 ' The Great Sea Serpent * of modern times. 



Those who have honoured this book with attentive perusal 

 thus far, will have become initiated in certain ophidian 

 manners, actions, and appearances which would enable them 

 at once to identify a snake were they to have a complete 

 view of one. But to those who are not familiar with such 

 peculiarities, and possess only a vague idea of the ophidian 

 form, many a merely elongated outline at sea may be, and has 

 been, set down as a * serpent,' which on closer inspection, or by 

 the light of science, has prov^ed something entirely different. 



