THE SERPENTINE EIDDLE. 



189 



It is quite possible that the great unknown is a reptile, and his marine habits present 

 no difficulty. In the Indian and Pacific Oceans there are numerous specimens of true snakes 

 (Hydrophidce), which are exclusively inhabitants of the sea. None of these, however, are 

 known to exceed a few feet in length, and none of them, so far as is known, have found 

 their way into the Atlantic. 



The most probable solution of the riddle is the hypothesis of Mr. Morriss Stirling 



HEAD OF SEA-SEKPENT. (After a Drawing by Captain 



and Professor Agassiz, that the so-called sea-serpent will find its closest affinities with 

 those extraordinary animals the Enaliosauria, or marine lizards, whose fossil skeletons are 

 found so abundantly through the Oolite and the Lias. If the Plesiosaur could be seen alive 

 you would find nearly its total length on the face of the water propelled at a rapid rate, 

 without any undulation, by an apparatus altogether invisible the powerful paddles beneath 

 while the entire serpentine neck would probably be projected obliquely, carrying the reptilian 

 head, with an eye of moderate aperture, and a mouth whose gape did not extend behind the 

 eye. Add to this a body of leathery skin like that of the whale, give the creature a length 



