no LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



The case related by Captain M'Quhse formed, as has 

 been remarked, subject-matter for much discussion. As 

 Mr. Gosse records in his charming work, the " Romance of 

 Natural History," the various suggestions thrown out 

 regarding the nature of the "serpent" seen by the crew of 

 the Dcedalus, included and advocated its correspondence 

 with a gigantic seal, this idea emanating from Professor 

 Owen ; with a Plesiosaurus an extinct reptile, which pos- 

 sessed a very long swan-like neck, and which attained a 

 usual length varying from eighteen to twenty or more feet ; 

 with other and allied forms of extinct reptilia ; and with a 

 large species of shark, the basking shark (Selache maxima). 

 The idea of Professor Owen does not in the least correspond 

 with Captain M'Quhae's circumstantial account of the 

 appearance ; and to Owen's views the captain contributed a 

 courteous but firm reply, refusing absolutely to admit that 

 his description was susceptible of such modifications as would 

 bring Professor Owen's idea of a gigantic seal and the 

 serpent of the Dcudalus into close correspondence. Mr. 

 Gosse and others support the suggestion that the animal 

 seen on this occasion was a kind of Plesiosaurus (see 

 Frontispiece). And this idea received apparent support 

 from the fact recorded by Captain M'Quhae that no motion 

 was observed in the portion of the animal above water ; it 

 being thus concluded that the movements were produced by 

 limbs existing in the form of swimming-paddles, such as the 

 Plesiosauri possessed, and which would in their natural 

 position be concealed below the surface of the water. The 

 suggestion of a huge shark is simply untenable from the utter 

 want of correspondence between any feature of the shark's 

 conformation and the account of Captain M'Quhae. 



The idea that the animal observed in this instance was a 

 huge serpent, seems to have been simply slurred over without 

 that due attention which this hypothesis undoubtedly merits. 

 Whilst to my mind, the only feasible explanation of the 

 narrative of the crew of the Pauline must be founded on the 

 idea that the animals observed by them were gigantic snakes. 



