122 THE KING OF THE HERRINGS 



vary greatly in size ; in some rivers a fifteen-pounder 

 is reckoned a rare prize; in others the angler plies 

 his craft in hopes of a forty, fifty, or sixty-pounder. 

 An oar-fish 17 feet long may bear no nearer 

 proportion to its mighty kindred in the ocean abysses 

 than a five-pound grilse does to a salmon of 103 

 pounds, which is reported to have been taken in 

 the Firth of Tay during last close season. It may be 

 that only youthful and inexperienced oarfishes venture 

 into comparatively shallow seas, and that larger in- 

 dividuals, wallowing on the surface far from land, may 

 have given rise to the numerous and persistent stories 

 of the great sea-serpent. ' The tales,' says Professor 

 Smith, ' of the great sea-serpent may probably be 

 explained by a variety of different causes tumbling 

 dolphins, enormous cuttlefish, the basking shark 

 floating and resting at the surface, or even floating 

 wreckage.' But in the cases where the sea-serpent 

 appears with crest erect the explanation seems to lie 

 in the appearance and death-struggles of the King of 

 the Herrings at the surface of the ocean. Of course 

 the oar-fish is not a serpent, but a true fish nearly 

 related to the deal-fish (Trachypterus), which in no 

 degree affects the credibility of the evidence borne 

 by many experienced seamen to the existence of a 

 huge marine animal resembling a serpent. 



Unluckily some of the external organs of this great 

 fish are so extremely delicate and fragile that they 

 invariably get damaged either in capture or when the 

 creature is stranded, and a perfect specimen has never 

 been recovered. Norwegian fishermen describe the 



