GREAT SEA-SERPENT. 315 



what like toes, partially webbed. Probably the 

 sketch is particularly defective respecting these. Dr 

 Fleming, in his notice of this animal, suggests that 

 these members were probably the remains of pec- 

 toral, ventral, and caudal fins.* The skin was 

 smooth, without scales, and of a greyish colour; 

 and the flesh appeared like coarse ill-coloured beef. 

 The eye was of the size of the Seal's ; the throat 

 was too narrow to admit the hand. Though con- 

 veying probably a very imperfect representation of 

 the animal, we have supplied above a wood-cut of 

 the sketch which was taken at the time, and which, 

 from the many affidavits proffered by most respect- 

 able individuals, as well as from other circum- 

 stances narrated, leaves no manner of doubt as to 

 the existence of some such animal. 



We shall next allude to the unvarnished account 

 recently given, of a great animal which excited con- 

 siderable astonishment and alarm among the Western 

 Isles of Scotland. The following extract i s taken fro in 

 a letter of Mr Maclean, the parish minister of Eigg, 

 dated 1809, to Dr Neill, the learned and worthy secre- 

 tary of the Wernerian Society : " I saw the animal 

 of which you enquire in June 1 808, on the coast of 

 Coll. Rowing along that coast, I observed, at about 

 the distance of half a mile, an object to windward, 

 which gradually excited astonishment. At first 

 view it appeared like a small rock ; but, knowing 

 hat there was no rock in that situation, I fixed my 



Brit. An. p, 173. 



