STRANGE SEA CREATURES. 



" We ought to make up our minds to dismiss as idle prejudices, or, 

 at least, suspend as premature, any preconceived notion of what might> 

 or what ought to, be the order of nature, and content ourselves with 

 observing, as a plain matter of fact, what is." Sir J. HERSCHEL, 

 "Prelim. Disc." page 7y. 



THE fancies of men have peopled three of the four so-called 

 elements, earth, air, water, and fire, with strange forms of 

 life, and have even found in the salamander an inhabitant 

 for the fourth. On land the centaur and the unicorn, in the 

 air the dragon and the roc, in the water tritons and mer- 

 maids, may be named as instances among many of the 

 fabulous creatures which have been not only imagined but 

 believed in by men of old times. Although it may be 

 doubted whether men have ever invented any absolutely 

 imaginary forms of life, yet the possibility of combining 

 known forms into imaginary, and even impossible, forms, 

 must be admitted as an important element in any inquiry 

 into the origin of ideas respecting such creatures as I have 

 named. One need only look through an illuminated manu- 

 script of the Middle Ages to recognize the readiness with 

 which imaginary creatures can be formed by combining, or 

 by exaggerating, the characteristics of known animals. 

 Probably the combined knowledge and genius of all the 

 greatest zoologists of our time would not suffice for the 

 invention of an entirely new form of animal which yet should 

 be zoologically possible; but to combine the qualities of 

 several existent animals in a single one, or to conceive an 



