THE STKONSA SKELETON. 327 



suggested itself as the representative of the portent, until 

 the mystery has been unravelled. 



" The vertebrae of the sea-serpent described and deline- 

 ated in the Wernerian Transactions, vol. i., and sworn 

 to by the fishermen who saw it off the Isle of Stronsa, (one 

 of the Orkneys,) in 1808, two of which vertebrae are in 

 the Museum of the College of Surgeons, are certainly 

 those of a great shark, of the genus Selache, and are not 

 distinguishable from those of the species called ' basking- 

 shark,' of which individuals from thirty feet to thirty-tive 

 feet in length have been from time to time captured or 

 stranded on our coasts. 



" I have no unmeet confidence in the exactitude of rny 

 interpretation of the phenomena witnessed by the captain 

 and others of the Dcedalus. I am too sensible of the 

 inadequacy of the characters which the opportunity of a 

 rapidly passing animal, 'in a long ocean swell,' enabled 

 them to note, for the determination of its species or 

 genus. Giving due credence to the most probably accu- 

 rate elements of their description, they do little more than 

 guide the zoologist t^ the class, which, in the present in- 

 stance, is not that of the serpent or the saurian. 



"But I am usually asked, after each endeavour to 

 explain Captain M'Quhae's sea-serpent, ' Why should there 

 not be a great sea-serpent?' often, too, in a tone which 

 seems to imply, ' Do you think, then, there are not more 

 marvels in the deep than are dreamt of in your philoso- 

 phy?' And, freely conceding that point, I have felt 

 bound to give a reason for scepticism as well as faith. 



