THE GREA T SEA SERPENT. 409 



of the incident, and will be anything but acceptable to those who 

 prefer the excitement of the imagination to the satisfaction of the 

 judgment. I am far from insensible to the pleasures of the discovery 

 of a new and rare animal ; but before I can enjoy them, certain con- 

 ditions e.g., reasonable proof or evidence of its existence must be 

 fulfilled. I am also far from undervaluing the information which 

 Captain M'Quhas has given us of what he saw. When fairly analysed, 

 it lies in a small compass ; but my knowledge of the animal kingdom 

 compels me to draw other conclusions from the phenomena than those 

 which the gallant captain -seems to have jumped at. He evidently 

 saw a large animal moving rapidly through the water, very different 

 from anything he had before witnessed neither a whale, a grampus 

 a great shark, an alligator, nor any of the larger surface-swimming 

 creatures which are fallen in with in ordinary voyages. He writes : 

 1 On our attention being called to the object, it was discovered to be 

 an enormous serpent ' (read ' animal '), ' with the head and shoulders 

 kept about four feet constantly above the surface of the sea. The 

 diameter of the serpent ' (animal) * was about fifteen or sixteen inches, 

 behind the head ; its colour a dark brown, with yellowish white about 

 the throat. No fins were seen ' (the captain says there were none ; 

 but, from his own account, he did not see enough of the animal to 

 prove his negative). i Something like the mane of a horse, or rather 

 a bunch of sea-weed, washed about its back.' So much of the body 

 as was seen was not used in propelling the animal through the water, 

 either by vertical or horizontal undulation. A calculation of its length' 

 was made under a strong preconception of the nature of the beast. 

 The head, e.g., is stated to be ' without any doubt that of a snake ' ; 

 and yet a snake would be the last species to which a naturalist, con- 

 versant with the forms and characters of the heads of animals, would 

 refer such a head as that of which Captain M'Quhae has transmitted a 

 drawing to the Admiralty, and which he certifies to have been accu- 

 rately copied in the Illustrated London News for October the 28th, 

 1848, p. 265. Your Lordship will observe that no sooner was the 

 captain's attention called to the object than it was discovered to be an 

 enormous serpent, and yet the closest inspection of as much of the 

 body as was visible afleur d'eau failed to detect any undulations of the 

 body, although such actions constitute the very character which would 

 distinguish a serpent, or serpentiform swimmer, from any other marine 

 species. The foregone conclusion, therefore, of the beast's being a 

 sea serpent, notwithstanding its capacious vaulted cranium, and stiff 

 inflexible trunk, must be kept in mind in estimating the value of the 



