Miscellaneous. 463 



figured in the * Illustrated London News,' October 28, 1848, from the 

 original American memoir, by no means satisfies the conditions of 

 the problem. Neither do the Saccopharynx of Mitchell, nor the 

 Ophiognathus of Harwood — the one 4^ feet, the other 6 feet long ; 

 both are surpassed by some of the congers of our own coasts, and, 

 like other mursenoid fishes and the known small sea-snakes {Hydro- 

 phis), swim by undulatory movements of the body. 



The fossil vertebrse and skull which were exhibited by Mr.. Koch 

 in New York and Boston as those of the great sea-serpent, and 

 which are now in Berlin, belonged to different individuals of a spe- 

 cies which I had previously proved to be an extinct whale ; a deter- 

 mination which has subsequently been confirmed by Profesors Miiller 

 and Agassiz. Mr. Dixon, of Worthing, has discovered many fossil 

 vertebrse in the Eocene tertiary clay at Bracklesham, which belong 

 to a large species of an extinct genus of serpent (Palaophis), founded 

 on similar vertebrse from the same formation in the Isle of Sheppey. 

 The largest of these ancient British snakes was 20 feet in length ; 

 but there is no evidence that they were marine. 



The Sea Saurians of the secondary periods of geology have been 

 replaced in the tertiary and actual seas by marine mammals. No 

 remains of Cetacea have been found in lias or oolite, and no re- 

 mains of Plesiosaur, or Ichthyosaur, or any other secondary reptile, 

 have been found in Eocene or later tertiary deposits, or recent, on 

 the actual sea-shores ; and that the old air-breathing saurians floated 

 when they died has been shown in the * Geological Transactions * 

 (vol. v., second series, p. 512). The inference that may reasonably 

 be drawn from no recent carcase or fragment of such having ever 

 been discovered, is strengthened by the corresponding absence of 

 any trace of their remains in the tertiary beds. 



Now, on weighing the question, whether creatures meriting the 

 name of " great sea-serpent" do exist, or whether any of the gigan- 

 tic marine saurians of the secondary deposits may have continued to 

 live up to the present time, it seems to me less j)robable that no 

 part of the carcase of such reptiles should have ever been discovered 

 in a recent or unfossilized state, than that men should have been 

 deceived by a cursory view of a partly submerged and rapidly- 

 moving animal, which might only be strange to themselves. In 

 other words, I regard the negative evidence, from the utter absence 

 of any of the recent remains of great sea-serpents, krakens, or Ena- 

 liosauria, as stronger against their actual existence than the positive 

 statements which have hitherto weighed with the public mind in 

 favour of their existence. A larger body of evidence from eye-wit- 

 nesses might be got together in proof of ghosts than of the sea- 

 serpent. 



Description of a new species q/" Smynthurus (^S. haulastinus) . 

 By J. Hardy, Esq. 



This small species of Smynthuritswas very abundant upon the leaves 

 of potatoes and other plants in gardens, deriving its sustenance from 

 their sap. The leaves, apparently in consequence, had numerous 

 minute black spots dispersed over their surface, and to it, while the 



