STRANGE SEA CREATURES. 219 



to be an enormous serpent,'" though in reality the true 

 nature of the creature could not be determined even from 

 the observations made during the whole time that it remained 

 visible. Taking, however, "the more certain characters," 

 the "head with a convex, moderately capacious cranium, 

 short, obtuse muzzle, gape not extending further than to be- 

 neath the eye, which (the eye) is rather small, round, filling 

 closely the palpebral aperture " (that is, the eyelids fit 

 closely *) ; " colour and surface as stated ; nostrils indicated 

 in the drawing by a crescentic mark at the end of the nose 

 or muzzle. All these," proceeds Owen, " are the characters 

 of the head of a warm-blooded mammal, none of them those 

 of a cold-blooded reptile or fish. Body long, dark brown, 

 not undulating, without dorsal or other apparent fins, 'but 

 something like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of 

 sea-weed, washed about its back.' " He infers that the 

 creature had hair, showing only where longest on the back, 

 and therefore that the animal was not a mammal of the 

 whale species but rather a great seaL He then shows that 

 the sea-elephant, or Phoca probosddea, which attains the 

 length of from 20 to 30 feet, was the most probable member 

 of the seal family to be found about 300 miles from the 

 Western shore of the southern end of Africa, in latitude 

 24 44'. Such a creature, accidentally carried from its 

 natural domain by a floating iceberg, would have (after its 

 iceberg had melted) to urge its way steadily southwards, as 

 the supposed sea-serpent was doing ; and probably the crea- 

 ture approached the Dczdalus to scan her " capabilities as a 

 resting-place, as it paddled its long, stiff body past the ship." 

 " In so doing it would raise a head of the form and colour 

 described and delineated by Captain M'Quhse" its head 

 only, be it remarked, corresponding with the captain's de- 

 scription. The neck also would be of the right diameter. 



* It is a pity that men of science so often forget, when addressing 

 those who are not men of science, or who study other departments than 

 theirs, that technical terms are out of place. Most people, I take it 

 are more familiar, on the whole, with eyelids than with palpebra. 



