98 LEISURE- 77 'ME STUDIES. 



terrible animal, worthy of a place in the records of those 

 knightly encounters with strange beasts which mark our 

 earlier literature. The marine snake of Magnus was 200 

 feet long, twenty feet thick, and appeared " like a pillar" when 

 he elevated his head in mid-air. His hair was a cubit long, 

 his scales were sharp and his skin black ; and his eyes were 

 like flaming fire. The appearances of such monsters were 

 naturally regarded in the light of grave portents of coming 

 disasters. One old writer, relating the capture of a marine 

 monster, says that " in 1282, there was a fish taken in the sea, 

 in all respects like unto a lyon." The fishermen reported that 

 " the fishe gave many frighfull scrikes and cries when it was 

 taken, and at this time," continues the narrative, " there fell a 

 great discord between the Englishmen that were students in 

 Paris and those of Pycardy that studyed there likewise. 

 Their division was so terrible that it could hardly be ap- 

 peased." Starting thus with a basis of myth, it is little to be 

 wondered at that modern ideas have continued to invest the 

 "sea-serpent" and its kind with an atmosphere of the 

 ridiculous. 



The simple and attentive consideration of the matter, 

 however, reveals certain aspects and features, in virtue of 

 which it can hardly be dismissed from the sphere either of 

 popular or of scientific thought, and which commend the 

 subject to the intelligent mind, as a study of both a curious 

 and highly interesting kind. Can we, for example, after 

 perusing the mass of evidence accumulated during past 

 years, dismiss the subject simpliciter, as founded on no 

 basis of fact ? The answer to such a question must be an 

 emphatic negative; since the evidence brought before our 

 notice includes the testimony of several hundreds of sane 

 and reasonable persons, who in frequent cases have testified 

 on oath and by affidavit to the truth of their descriptions of 

 curious marine forms, seen and observed in various seas. 

 The second supposition, that all of these persons have 

 simply been deceived, is one which must also be dismissed. 

 For, after making all due allowance for exaggeration, and 



