346 THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



5. Appendages on the head (7), neck (6). 01 back 

 (2, 5), resembling a crest or mane. (Considerable discrep- 

 ancy in details.) 



6. Colour dark brown (1, 2, 5, 7), or green (6) ; streaked 

 or spotted with white (1, 2, 5, 6, 7). 



7. Swims at surface of the water (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), 

 with a rapid (1, 2, 5), or slow (4, 6, 7), movement ; the 

 head and neck projected and elevated above the surface 

 (1, 2, 5, 6, 7). 



8. Progression steady and uniform ; the body straight 

 (2, 5, 6), but capable of being thrown into convolutions 

 (4). 



9. Spouts in the manner of a whale (6). 



To which of the recognised classes of created beings 

 can this huge rover of the ocean be referred? And, first, 

 is it an animal at all ? That there are immense algse in 

 the ocean, presenting some of the characters described, 

 has been already shewn ; and on two occasions an object 

 supposed to be the "sea-serpent" proved on examination 

 to be but a sea-weed floating ; the separated and inverted 

 roots of which, projecting in the roll of the swell, seemed 

 a head, and the fronds (in the one case) and (in the other) 

 a number of attached barnacles, resembled a shaggy mane 

 washed about in the water. 



But surely it must have been a very dim and indistinct 

 view of the floating and ducking object, which could have 

 mistaken this for a living animal ; * and it would be 



* The distance is estimated at half a mile on both occasions. (See 

 the accounts of Captains Ilerriman and Smith.} 



