ioo LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



issue. What that "something" is or was, and whether or 

 not the evidence will support the opinion that the appear- 

 ances described bear out the existence of a " sea-serpent " 

 in the flesh, form points for discussion in the next instance. 



In the consideration of this second issue, two chief 

 aspects are presented. We have thus, firstly, to assure 

 ourselves that the evidence, the character of which has just 

 been discussed, will support the assertion that the appear- 

 ances noted were produced by living organisms. And 

 provided this point be decided in the affirmative, we must 

 assure ourselves, in the second place, of the probable kind 

 and nature of these beings. 



Allusion has already been made to erroneous observa- 

 tions, which have subjected the stories of sea-serpents to 

 almost universal ridicule, and in which various lifeless 

 objects were at first credited with the representation of the 

 marine monster. That a long and connected string of sea- 

 weed, extending for some fifty or sixty feet along the surface 

 of a sea, slightly disturbed by a rippling breeze, may be 

 moved by the waves in a manner strongly suggestive of the 

 movements of a snake in swimming, is a statement to the 

 correctness of which I can bear personal testimony, and to 

 the truth of which even observant sea-side visitors may 

 testify. The movements of an unusually long frond or 

 group of fronds of tangle, attached to a rock, and set in 

 motion at low water, by a light swell, has before now, and 

 when seen indistinctly, suggested the idea of the existence 

 at the spot of some large denizen of the sea, browsing on 

 the sea-weeds, with the fore part of its body, represented by 

 the tangle fronds, occasionally appearing at the surface of 

 the water. Floating trunks and roots of trees (see Frontis- 

 piece), serving as a nucleus around which sea-weed has 

 collected, and to which barnacles and sea-acorns producing 

 a variegated effect by reason of their light colour have 

 attached themselves in great numbers, have also presented 

 appearances closely resembling those of large marine 

 animals, swimming slowly along at the surface of the water. 



