^38 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



XIV.— THE GREAT SEA SERPENT. 



The bed of the ocean, by its structure and tlie 

 accidents of its surface, exactly resembles certain 

 parts of the dry land, which, at an epoch more or 

 less remote, have manifestly belonged to the oceanic 

 basin, and still present undoubted proofs of their 

 origin. 



The lesser islands in the sea are nothing but the 

 summits of mountains, whose bases repose upon the 

 deep sea valleys, and in the intervals between are 

 ravines and rocky precipices, as steep, as irregular, 

 and as abrupt as those which we find among the 

 mountain chains of the continent. The lead-line 

 discovers eminences, mountains, and valleys, sepa- 

 rated by abysses, the arrangement of which is neither 

 less varied nor less astonishing than that which we 

 observe in the geodesic configuration of the dry land. 

 The submerged valleys are clothed with thick-set 

 vegetation, and are peopled by innumerable nomade 

 races,* and in comparison with some of the latter, 

 our land monsters, such as the elephant, the girafi'e, 

 the rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus, are little better 

 than pigmies. 



* With submission to M. R^voil, it should be noted that the balance 

 of scientific opinion is against the existence of either animal or vegetable 

 life at the great depths of the sea.— Tkans. 



