322 



* KNOV\ALEDGE ♦ 



[Nov. 23, 1883. 



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STRANGE SEA CREATURES. 



[1016] — In your article on " Strange Sea Creatures," you have 

 doubtless been led to suggest that I was deceived >as to the creature 

 which I am convinced was seen by my friend and myself at Budc 

 about three weeks ago, by the very short statement which I sent 

 to the Times. Since I sent that notice further information has 

 reached me, which may possibly induce you to modify the view 

 that it was an inanimate object which passed us. The distance 

 from Bude to New Quay is by sea very nearly 40 miles. The 

 creature, which passed us about 4.20p.m., was seen passing New 

 Quay at 5.30 p.m. the same day. It is scarcely possible that there 

 can have been two uncommon marine monsters on this coast about 

 the same time. If it is the case, then, that the same creature 

 was seen in one part of the sea at 4.20 p.m., and in another, 40 

 miles off in an hour and ten minutes after, it is pretty certain that 

 the appearance was not that of an inanimate mass of sea wreck. 

 The rate of movement was much faster than any sea-current on 

 this coast would carry an object. It was seen by several persons 

 at Bude. Some men at work first saw the creature approaching 

 New Quay, and compared its progress through the water to that of 

 a huge rat. Three ladies watched it from the next headland beyond 

 New Quay, a height of SO or 90 feet above the sea, and distinctly 

 saw its head, which they said was like that of a huge conger or 

 snake. They state that it was about 50 feet long, that it left what 

 seemed to be a greasy trail in its wake, which was visible for a 

 quarter of an hour after it was lost to sight, and by which they 

 could trace its course. It was seen also by persons about two miles 

 north of Bude, coming down towards the land from the open sea, 

 north-west of us. My first impression of it was that it was a long 

 boat, which had got adrift from some ship, but the unusual length 

 surprised mo. Then I soon saw that no boat or large log of wood 

 could be moving at such a rate. Having no telescope at hand, or 

 within reach, during the short time the creature was in sight, we 

 could make out nothing distinct as to the shape of the creature. 

 It went through the water apparently without much exertion, for 

 we saw no commotion in the water as it went along. It was in 

 sight the lohole time, till it was lost in the distance. 



I should like to know whether a calamary would travel at the 

 rate of this creature, and with the same regularity. I am told that 

 a whale would go beneath the surface, and not proceed in the same 

 steady course as this creature did. It was my own impression at 

 the time, and has been ever since, that its movement most resem- 

 bled that of a huge rat swimming very swiftly through the water ; 

 and I was glad to find that it coincided exactly with that of the 

 men at work at New Quay. 



I quite agree with your conclusion that there are many species 

 of marine animals of which we know little, or even nothing at all ; 

 and I shall be glad if this plain statement of what was seen here 

 induces tlie sceptical to believe this. Fragmentary observations, 

 when properly pieced together, may increase our knowledge of the 

 wonders of the deep. E. Highton. 



Bude Vicarage, Nor. 3. 1883. 



P.S. — Admiral Jones' experience is not much to the purpose. — 

 E. H. 



[I am much obliged to Mr. Highton for his very interesting 

 communication. I intended to suggest rather the possibility than 

 the probability that one of those singular illusions produced by the 



movement of masses of matter like seaweed in a disturbed sea may 

 have accounted for the sea monster he seemed to see. I am my- 

 self one of those who regard the rejection of all such accounts in 

 that way as altogether unscientific. — R. P.] 



A MOONLIGHT ASCENT IN A BALLOON. 



[1017] — The distorted appearance of the earth's surface as seen 

 from a balloon during sunlight, is not the same as that seen from 

 a balloon during moonlight. In the latter case it has more the form 

 of a spherical or convex than that of a saucer-like or concave 

 aspect. Describing his moonlight ascent from the Crystal Palace 

 in August, 1866, when eight persons accompanied iiim, Mr. Coxwell 

 says : — " But what impressed me as worthy of more particular 

 attention, and 1 have frequently observed it before, was the great 

 contrast between the view of the earth by day and that by night. 

 By daylight the surface of England has that beautiful bowl-shaped 

 and variegated appearance, with every conceivable hue and 

 form, which no picture, and only a widespread landscape can. 

 possibly offer to notice. By moonlight you are .able to observe 

 for a circle of a few miles around you the hedgerows, trees, woods, 

 and water, and even to detect shades of difference in the colour of 

 the fields ; but away towards the horizon, where it is dark and yet 

 visible, you observe more the planetary and material form ; and if 

 by any unseen and invisible means one could be suspended at 

 tolerable altitude, the idea would certainly be uppermost that an 

 approach was being made to the confines of some vast globe, where 

 immediately beneath you there were signs of busy life and cultivated 

 soil. The general contour of the earth strikes one as coming nearer 

 by night to what imagination pictnres of a world in space ; it 

 assumes a less concave, if not a convex form, and the subdued light 

 of night shades over and above the black horizon strongly define the 

 boundary of the terrestrial matter from space." J. Dyer. 



PERFORATED STONES IN INDIA. 



[1018] — Perhaps some of your readers or correspondents may be 

 able to give me information as to the exact localities in India where 

 perforated stones exist through which persons pass, and are thought 

 thereby to attain a higher life or to become new-born in the same 

 sense that the rulers of Travancore, being of the Nair caste, become 

 Brahmins by passing through a golden cow or lotus. I believe one 

 such stone exists near Bombay, and another in Guzerat. Any 

 details regarding the use and actual position of either of these 

 stones, or of any others of the same nature, will greatly oblige. 



Cosmopolitan. 



STRANGE PHENOMENON. 



[1019] — The folloing extract from a private letter, dated 

 Kurrachee, Oct. 14, seems somewhat remarkable, following on your 

 correspondent's mention of the green sky which has caused so much 

 perplexity of late in India : — 



" The weather is getting pleasant now, and every evening after 

 sunset we have a most extraordinary brilliant glow in the sky. As 

 it is over Mecca, the Mussulmans think it portends the arrival of 

 the Messiah, or some other terrific event." 



Nov. 15. Major ab Adversis. 



ANTHROPOMETRY. 



[1020] — Though not possessing any scientific knowledge of 

 ethnology, yet emboldened by Mr. Grant Allen's expressed desire 

 for information about the peasant-farmers of my native county, I 

 gladly offer the small mite of my personal experience for the benefit 

 of that gentleman, whose charming papers in Knowledge have been 

 the source of much pleasure to me. 



Six or seven miles from the capital of North Tipperary, in the 

 valley surrounding the hamlet of 'Templederry, there used to be in 

 my childhood one of the finest race of men I have ever seen. 

 Judging from their surnames alone, the inhabitants of this valley 

 must have been of mixed blood, partly English and Welsh, as well 

 as Irish, for while there were O'Bryans and O'Learys, there were 

 also Vickers and Gilmartins among the Catholics, and Powells and 

 Howells among the Protestants. It was a sight on a fair or market 

 day, to see the well-clad well-fed, and well-mounted peasant- 

 farmers of Templederry ride into the little assize town of Nenagh, 

 with their bright-complexioned faces beaming with good humour and 

 independence, and their short frieze capes flying in the air behind 

 them. The mere sound of their merry voices and happy laughter 

 seemed to impart vitality to the listener. 



They were mostly over six feet, and were broad-shouldered, deep- 

 chested, fair or fiorid coraplexioued men, and many of them had the 

 unmistakably narrow English oval shape of face and head. 



