THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT. 



Scoliophis Atlanticus ? Lin. Soc. of Boston. 



PLATE XXXII. THE SEA-SERPENT. 



WE have but very obscure intimation of what these 

 monsters really were ; they were not true or common fish, 

 but were reputed to be prodigious animals, whose form 

 and nature were imperfectly understood ; and which 

 were peculiarly the objects of vulgar wonder and super- 

 stitious dread. Now, it so happens that, even at the pres- 

 ent day, it is asserted that such monsters exist, whose 

 characters all the assiduity of Naturalists has not hitherto 

 satisfactorily ascertained. 



That much fable and exaggeration have been mixed up 

 with the history of the Great Sea-Serpent, cannot be 

 doubted ; still, however, the inquiry recurs, what portion 

 of the truth is involved amidst this error ? 



We turn, first, to an account of an animal which appa- 

 rently belonged to this class, which was stranded in the 

 Island of Stronsa, one of the Orkneys, in the year 1808, 

 and which was first seen entire, and measured by respec- 

 table individuals, and afterwards when dead, and broken in 

 pieces by the violence of the waves, was again examined 

 by many; portions of it being secured, such as the skull, 

 and upper bones of the swimming paws, by Mr. Laing, a 

 neighboring proprietor ; and other portions, such as the 

 vertebrae, by being deposited and beautifully preserved in 

 the Royal Museum of the University of Edinburgh, and in 

 the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. An able 

 paper on these latter fragments, and on the wreck of the 

 animal, was read by the late Dr. Barclay to the Werne- 

 rian Society, and will be found in Vol. I. of its Transactions. 



