n8 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



a gigantic sea monster. Its skin was, so far as could be seen y 

 altogether devoid of scales, appearing rather to resemble 

 in sleekness that of a seal. The head was bullet-shaped, 

 with an elongated termination, being somewhat similar in 

 form to that of a seal, and was about six feet in diameter. 

 Its features were only seen by one officer, who described 

 them as like those of an alligator. The neck was compara- 

 tively narrow, but so much of the body as could be seen 

 developed in form like that of a gigantic turtle, and from 

 each side extended two fins, about fifteen feet in length, by 

 which the monster paddled itself along after the fashion of 

 a turtle. The appearance of the monster is accounted for 

 by a submarine volcano, which occurred north of Galita, in 

 the Gulf of Tunis, about the middle of May, and was re- 

 ported at the time by a steamer which was struck by a 

 detached fragment of submarine rock. The disturbance 

 below water, it is thought probable, may have driven up the 

 monster from its ' native element,' as the site of the eruption 

 is only one hundred miles from where it was reported to 

 have been seen." 



I thought the opportunity a favourable one for offering 

 a reasonable explanation of the circumstance, and I com- 

 municated my views to the Times in the following terms, 

 the latter appearing in that journal for June 15, 1877 : 

 4 'About a year ago I ventilated in the columns of several 

 journals the idea that the 'sea-serpents' so frequently seen, 

 were in reality giant tape-fishes or ribbon-fishes. While not 

 meaning by this statement to exclude the idea that other 

 animals, such as giant sea-snakes themselves, may occa- 

 sionally personate the ' sea-serpent,' I am, as a zoologist, 

 fully convinced that very many of the reported appearances 

 of sea-serpents are explicable on the supposition that giant 

 tape-fishes of the existence of which no reasonable doubt 

 can be entertained have been seen. The report of Captain 

 Pearson, of the royal yacht Osborne, appears, as far as 

 zoological characters are concerned, to be fully explained 

 on the ' ribbon-fish ' theory. The long back fins, the scale- 



