484 Miscellaneous. 



The Sea-Serpent again ! 

 " To the Editor of the Natal Colonist. 



" SiK^ — Thinking that a truthful description by an eye-witness of 

 that marvel of the ocean, the sea-serpent, may interest your readers, I 

 crave your kind indulgence for the insertion of the following parti- 

 culars ; — 



" During my late passage from London I saw no less than three 

 sea-serpents ; but an account of the last wiU suiRce. 



" On the 80th of December last, on board the ' Silvery Wave,' in lat. 

 about 35° South and long. 33° 30' East, at 6.20 p.m., solar time, an 

 enormous serpent passing nearly across our bows compelled the alter- 

 ation of our course. He was at least 1000 yards long, of which 

 about one third appeared on the surface of the water at every stroke 

 of his enormous fan-shaped tail, with which he propelled himself, 

 raising it high above the waves and arching his back like a land- 

 snake or a caterpillar. In shape and proportion he much resembled 

 the cobra, being marked by the same knotty and swollen protuber- 

 ance at the back of the head on the neck. The latter was the 

 thickest part of the serpent. His head was like a bull's in shape, 

 his eyes large and glowing, his cars had circular tips and were level 

 with his eyes, and his head was surmounted by a horny crest which 

 he erected and depressed at pleasure. He swam with great rapidity 

 and lashed the sea into a foam, like breakers dashing over jagged 

 rocks. The sun shone brightly upon him, and with a good glass I 

 saw his overlapping scales open and shut with every arch of his 

 sinuous back, coloured like the rainbow. 



" I am &c., 



"J. COBBIN." 



" West Street, Durban, Jan. 22, 1872." 



Observations on the Extinct Whalebone -Whales (Balajnoida) the 

 Rmiains of ivhich have been foimd in the Vienna Basin, liy Prof. 

 J. F. Brandt. 



This memoir relates to the numerous remains of marine Mam- 

 malia which are met with in the Sarmatian deposits of Vienna ; and 

 the author shows, that in the neighbourhood of Vienna and Linz 

 no fewer than three genera of whalebone-whales, namely Cetothe- 

 rium, Cetotheriopsis, and Pachyacanthus, are represented, the last 

 two being only known from this district. Cetotheriopsis includes 

 only the animal hitherto known as Balcenodon lintiamis, whilst the 

 genus Pachyacanthus embraces two species of small, heavily built 

 Cetaceans, remarkable for the incrassation of their vertebral pro- 

 cesses, and belonging solely to the Sarmatian deposits of Vienna. — 

 Anzeiger der Akad. der Wiss. in Wien, April 18, 1872, p. 82. 



