220 NATURAL SCIENCE. , Marcu, 
a residuum which quite possibly may be explained by the discovery of 
some new animal. Oudemans’ own theory is given with a considerable 
amount of confidence, in some 50 pages towards the end of the book, 
and on page 516 an ideal sketch of the animal is produced. It is a 
Pinnipede to be called Megophias megophias (Raf.), Oud.; and a phylo- 
genetic table of its relations with other Pinnipedes, living and extinct, 
is given. It is very possible that a large Pinnipede may exist, but, 
on carefully going through the characters suggested for it by this 
author, it is difficult to see that he has been guided in his selection 
from reports by any sounder principle than relying on what appeared 
to suit his hypothesis, and rejecting or explaining away inconvenient 
ones. Further notice of this book I leave to a literary contributor. 
P Caan 
WE 
THE attitude of the nineteenth century, social as scientific, towards 
the unknown may be summed up by the remark made by a lady 
member of the upper ten concerning those less happily situated in the 
social scale—‘‘ ] don’t know them: they don’t exist.’ In the face of 
this attitude Dr. Oudemans has presented the public with a treatise 
of no less than 592 pages on our old friend the sea-serpent. We are 
warned on the title-page that the little volume contains reports of 
187 appearances, ‘‘ including those of the appendix,” but we are not 
told what the appendix of the serpent is, and there are no special 
reports on appearances of his tail. The author much deplores the 
fact that his illustrations are not due to the unlying kodac. Never- 
theless, the reader does not lose by this little omission in the baggage 
of observant travellers. It has been the means of providing portraits 
of the sea-serpent such as we feel assured no camera yet invented 
could have produced. The most impressive of these is one compiled 
by Messrs. Renard, péve et fils, who combinedly took observations one 
moonlight night during a voyage on the high seas in 1881. The 
result is the portrayal of a dragon worthy the sublimest efforts of Sir 
Augustus Harris. We fancy even our own patron saint would have 
quailed before it, unless, indeed, following the advice given by Dr. 
Oudemans, he had armed himself with ‘‘explosive balls and harpoons 
loaden with nitro-glycerine.” This particular specimen possessed 
not only teeth, ‘‘sharp, enormous, and white,” but a phosphorescent 
tongue and an eye that looked backwards. Probably that eye also 
winked, for Dr. Oudemans includes both description and drawing 
under the heading of ‘‘ Cheats and Hoaxes ’’—a section sternly dealt 
with at the beginning of the book. However, in the next chapter, 
entitled ‘‘ Would-be Sea-Serpents,” the illustrations are not to be 
outdone, in spirit and conception, by mere cheats and hoaxes, and 
in fig. 12, Lineus longissimus, Sow., we find something really worth 
looking at. Chapter iv. consists of reports and papers on the appear- 
ances of sea-serpents in various parts of the world. These are mostly 
compiled by naval officers, and a few—a very few—scientists. The 
Church, however, is not unrepresented, and we would not like to call 
in question the evidence of the Archbishop of Upsala, writing in 1555; 
but surely the Archbishop’s illustration is the gem of the collection. 
The sea-serpent is depicted in the act of swallowing a sailor, and we 
can only charitably suggest that the original sketch was intended as a 
representation of Jonah’s unfortunate experience. Among so much 
documentary evidence, it is difficult to discriminate critically. Even 
Milton is pressed into the service, quotations being given in ‘“‘ Reports 
