338 THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



in the shape of a saw, It was surrounded by hundreds 

 of birds, and we at first thought it was a dead whale. 

 He left a track in the water like the wake of a boat, and 

 from what we could see of his head and part of his body, 

 we were led to think he must be about sixty feet in 

 length, but he might be more. The captain kept the 

 vessel away to get nearer to him, and when we were 

 within a hundred yards he slowly sank into the depths of 

 the sea. While we were at dinner he was seen again/' 



Mr Alfred Newton, of Elveden Hall, an excellent and 

 well-known naturalist, adds the guarantee of his personal 

 acquaintance with one of the recipients of the above 

 letters.* 



If it were not for the spouting which is not men- 

 tioned by one observer, and may possibly have been an 

 illusion I should be inclined to think that this may 

 have been one of the scabbard-fishes, specimens of 

 which inhabit the ocean of immense size. They carry a 

 high serrated dorsal fin, and swim with* the head out of 

 water.-)- 



On the 19th February 1849, Mr Herriman, commander 

 of the British ship Brazilian, sailed from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and on the 24th was becalmed almost exactly 

 in the spot where Captain M'Quhse had seen his monster. 



" About eight o'clock on that morning, whilst the 



* I note this, because discredit has been undeservedly cast on the 

 phenomena observed, by foolish fabulous stories having been published 

 under fictitious names, for the purpose of hoaxing. 



t See Colonel Montagu's account, in Yarrell's British Fishes, vol. i., 

 p. 199, (edit. 1841.) 



