POTENTIALITIES. 323 



company with that of the crocodilia, from serious consideration, as including a possible repre- 

 sentative of the mystic animal. 



The discoverer of the latest, Queensland, edition of the sea-serpent is a lady, Miss Lovell, 

 who has for many years past officiated as school-board mistress to the Sandy Island Lighthouse 

 community. She takes a keen interest in all local natural history matters, and has recorded in the 

 Queensland newspapers, and elsewhere, many data of importance relating thereto. By way of 

 introduction to Miss Lovell's little " find," it may be mentioned that it is tolerably well known to 

 the aboriginals of Great Sandy or Eraser's Islands, and is associated by them, after the manner ot 

 native nomenclature, with a double-barrelled name, which takes in this instance the euphonious foim 

 of the " Moha-Moha." The Moha-Moba is, from its chronicler's description, a most amiable and 

 peacefully-disposed representative of the sea-serpent tribe, and the one, evidently, that we may 

 look forward in the near future to seeing acclimatised in an aquarium or zoological garden, 

 or, it may be, economically utilised as the chief ingredient — it will always be too scarce to use pure 

 and unadulterated — of a new and alderman-enthralling brand of turtle soup. A " tall " price, 

 as presently related, has already been set upon the creature's head by the high priests of science, 

 and the supply as 3'et falls so far short ot the demand, that it will consequently be some little 

 while before " Moha-Moha " soup is inscribed on the daily menu of our city restaurants. It 

 is essential that the Queensland brand-new, soup-potential, species should possess " a local 

 habitation and a name " that shall separate it decisively from the common herd of sea-serpents that 

 have already had their day. With reference to its obviously-combined chelonian and saurian 

 peculiarities {cf. infra), coupled with a fitting acknowledgment of its discoverer, it is here dis- 

 tinguished as the Great Barrier sea-serpent, Chelosauria Lovclli. 



Considered seriously, the existence of certain Chelonia which combine the popularly familiar 

 characters of chelonians and saurians is well known ; for example, the singular alligator terrapin, 

 Chdydra serpentina, of North America, while bearing a relatively rudimentary carapace and the 

 horny jaws of a chelonian, has short clawed limbs, and a long, bulky, serrated tail like that of 

 an alligator. As related by Miss Lovell, the Moha-Moha, according to the natives, possesses feet 

 like an alligator, and is, in such case, referable to the tortoise and terrapin, and not to the 

 turtle, section of the chelonians. The mouth armature, represented in Miss Lovell's sketch 

 by distinct dentition, is, moreover, remarkably saurian in its aspect. The one anomaly in 

 the sea-serpent's morphology is its tail, which is delineated as distinctly forked, and with 

 bony rays, as in an ordinary fish. The author hoped, by obtaining a detailed description of the 

 creature direct from its original observer, to have been in a position to give a more satisfactory 

 account of this appendage. No more explicit data, however, than are here recorded were 

 forthcoming; and the only explanation that can be suggested with relation to it is that it is 

 actually a bifurcated fleshy tail, or possibly an originally spatulate or paddle-like one, at 



which a shark, or perhaps a cross-gramed, back-biting relation, had taken an unfriendly nibble. 



s s 2 



