832 THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



the carcase of such reptiles should have ever been dis- 

 covered in a recent or unfossilised state, than that men 

 should have been deceived by a cursory view of a partly 

 submerged and rapidly moving animal, which might only 

 be strange to themselves. In other words, I regard 

 the negative evidence from the utter absence of any of 

 the recent remains of great sea-serpents, krakens, or 

 Enaliosauria, as stronger against their actual existence, 

 than the positive statements which have hitherto weighed 

 with the public mind in favour of their existence. A 

 larger body of evidence from eye-witnesses might be got 

 together in proof of ghosts than of the sea-serpent." * 



Such was the explanation of the deposed facts offered 

 by the ablest of living physiologists. Coming as it did 

 from such a quarter, and supported by so much intrinsic 

 reason, it is not surprising, that, although the romance 

 was sadly shorn away, most persons were willing to 

 acquiesce in the decision. 



Captain M'Quhse, however, promptly replied to Professor 

 Owen : — " I now assert, neither was it a common seal, 

 nor a sea-elephant ; its great length, and its totally differ- 

 ing physiognomy precluding the possibility of its being 

 a Phoca of any species. The head was flat, and not a 

 ' capacious vaulted cranium ;' nor had it ' a stiff inflexible 

 trunk ' — a conclusion to which Professor Owen has 

 jumped, most certainly not justified by the simple state- 

 ment, that no * portion of the sixty feet seen by us was 



• The Times, of November 11, 1848, 



