1893. SOME NEW BOOKS. 221 
and Papers” from Paradise Lost, where the great leviathan is 
mentioned as being the special dread of the Norwegians (the coast 
of Norway being the favourite haunt of the monster according to the 
most reliable eye-witnesses). But why is Coleridge left out ? 
‘‘ Beyond the shadow of the ship, 
I watched the water snakes. 
They moved in tracks of shining white, 
And when they reared the elfish light 
Fell off in hoary flakes.”’ 
Later on, we come upon another picture of a sailor being cut off 
in his prime by the wily monster, and we pass on with considerable 
relief to Dr. Oudemans’ ‘“‘Conclusions,’’ where, under the headings of 
‘‘ Harmlessness, Timidity, and Playfulness,” we learn that the great 
sea-serpent is, after all, a mild creature, a conviction probably deduced 
from the fact that, if the great sea snake has ever shown his animosity 
to the unwary invaders of his haunts, no victim has, so far, survived 
to tell the tale. 
It is sad, however, to find that Dr. Oudemans’ great Sea-serpent 
is, after all, only a monster sea-lion, and we don’t know of his having 
done anything to justify Dr. Oudemans’ calling him Megophias 
megophias (Raf.), Oud. 
BaP. 
HaNDBUCH DER PALONTOLOGIE.—Paleozoologie, vol. iv., pt.i. Edited by K. A. 
Zittel. 8vo. Pp. 304. Illustrated. Munich and Leipsic: R. Oldenbourg, 1892. 
WE are glad to congratulate Professor Von Zittel on the untiring 
energy which has enabled him to get well into the Mammals in the 
present fasciculus of this magnificent and invaluable work. It need 
hardly be mentioned that the whole of the Vertebrate portion of the 
work has been written by the Editor himself; and the present 
fasciculus is fully equal to its predecessors in the care and attention 









Fic, 1.—Palatal view of the skull of Mylodon. 
which has been bestowed upon it, and in the excellence of the illus- 
trations. Three of the latter we are enabled to reproduce as samples. 
We are especially glad to notice that the author has devoted par- 
ticular attention to the recent important discoveries which have been 
made among the fossil mammals of South America, and that a host 
of new forms have been assigned to their proper serial positions. 
This is the more creditable to the author, seeing that owing to unfor- 
tunate circumstances the vertebrate paleontology of that country 
