THE GREAT SEA SERPENT. 439 



been brought up from great depths fishes of unknown 

 species, and which could not exist near the surface, owing 

 to the distension and rupture of their air-bladder when 

 removed from the pressure of deep water. 



Mr. Gosse mentions that the ship in which he made the 

 voyage to Jamaica was surrounded in the North Atlantic, 

 for seventeen continuous hours by a troop of whales of 

 large size of an undescribed species, which on no other 

 occasion has fallen under scientific observation. Unique 

 specimens of other cetaceans are also recorded. 



We have evidence, to which attention has been directed 

 by Mr. A. D. Bartlett, that " even on land there exists at 

 least one of the largest mammals, probably in thousands, 

 of which only one individual has been brought to notice, 

 namely, the hairy-eared, two-horned rhinoceros (R. lasiotis), 

 now in the Zoological Gardens, London. It was captured 

 in 1868, at Chittagong, in India, where for years collectors 

 and naturalists have worked and published lists of the 

 animals met with, and yet no knowledge of this great beast 

 was ever before obtained, nor is there any portion of one in 

 any museum. It remains unique." 



I arrive, then, at the following conclusions : 1st. That, 

 without straining resemblances, or casting a doubt upon 

 narratives not proved to be erroneous, the various appear- 

 ances of the supposed "Great Sea Serpent" may now be 

 nearly all accounted for by the forms and habits of known 

 animals ; especially if we admit, as proposed by Dr. Andrew 

 Wilson, that some of them, including the marine snakes, 

 may, like the cuttles, attain to an extraordinary size. 



2nd. That to assume that naturalists have perfect cogni- 

 zance of every existing marine animal of large size, would 

 be quite unwarrantable. It appears to me more than pro- 

 bable that many marine animals, unknown to science, and 



