THE SEA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 115 



various other animal forms " doing duty," so to speak, for 

 sea-serpents on some occasions.* 



Amongst the fishes, we may find not a few examples of 

 snake-like animals, which, admitting the fact of the occur- 

 rence of gigantic developments, may be supposed to mimic 

 very closely the appearance of marine serpents. Any one 

 who has watched the movements of a large conger-eel, for 

 example, in any of our great aquaria, must have remarked 

 not only its serpentine form, but also the peculiar gliding 

 motion, which seems frequently to be produced independently 

 of the active movements of the tail or pectoral fins. I do 

 not doubt, however, that a giant eel might by most persons 

 be readily enough referred to its proper place in the animal 

 sphere, although, when viewed from some distance, and 

 seen in an imperfect and indistinct manner, the spectators 

 all unprepared to think of an eel being so largely developed 

 might report the appearance as that of a marine snake. 



A visit paid to the Newcastle Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, on which occasion I had the pleasure of inspecting a 

 dried and preserved ribbon or tape-fish (see Frontispiece) of 

 large size, forcibly confirmed an idea that such an animal, 

 developed to a gigantic size, and beheld from a distance by 

 persons unskilled in natural history, and who would, there- 

 fore, hardly -dream of associating the elongated being before 

 them with their ordinary ideas of fish-form and appearance, 

 might account for certain of the tales of sea-serpents which 

 have been brought under our notice. I had been specially 

 struck with the mention, in several accounts of sea-serpents, 

 of a very long back fin, sometimes termed a " mane," and of 

 a banded body covered with tolerably smooth skin ; whilst in 

 several instances the description given of the heads of the 

 sea monsters closely corresponded with the appearance of 

 the head of the tape-fishes. These fishes have further 

 been described by naturalists as occasionally having 

 been seen swimming with an undulating or serpentine 

 motion close to the surface of the water, the head being 

 * See note, p. 125. 



