STRANGE SEA CREATURES. 223 



was a dead whale. . . . When we were within 100 

 yards he slowly sank into the depths of the sea ; while we 

 were at dinner he was seen again." Mr. Alfred Newton, 

 the well-known naturalist, guarantees his personal acquaint- 

 ance with one of the recipients of the letters just quoted 

 from. But such a guarantee is, of course, no sufficient 

 guarantee of the authenticity of the narrative. Even if the 

 narrative be accepted, the case seems a very doubtful one. 

 The birds form a suspicious element in the story. Why 

 should birds cluster around a living sea creature ? It seems 

 to me probable that the sea-weed theory, presently to be 

 noticed, gives the best explanation of this case. Possibly 

 some great aggregation of sea-weed was there, in which were 

 entangled divers objects desirable to birds and to fishes. 

 These last may have dragged the mass under water when 

 the ship approached, being perhaps more or less entangled 

 in it and it floated up again afterwards. The spouting 

 may have been simply the play of water over the part mis- 

 taken for the head. 



The sea-weed theory of the sea-serpent was broached in 

 February, 1849, and supported by a narrative not unlike the 

 last. When the British ship Brazilian was beclamed almost 

 exactly in the spot where M'Quhae had seen his monster, 

 Mr. Herriman, the commander, perceived something right 

 abeam, about half a mile to the westward, " stretched along 

 the water to the length of about 25 or 30 feet, and per- 

 ceptibly moving from the ship with a steady, sinuous motion. 

 The head, which seemed to be lifted several feet above the 

 waters, had something resembling a mane, running down to 

 the floating portion, and within about 6 feet of the tail it 

 forked out into a sort of double fin." Mr. Herriman, his 

 first mate, Mr. Long, and several of the passengers, after 

 surveying the object for some time, came to the unanimous 

 conclusion that it must be the sea-serpent seen by Captain 

 M'Quhae. "As the Brazilian was making no headway, Mr. 

 Herriman, determining to bring all doubts to an issue, had 

 a boat lowered down, and taking two hands on board, 



