EXAMINATION OF OWEN's DECISION. 84:7 



absurd in the highest degree to presume that of such a 

 nature could be the creatures, going rapidly through the 

 water at ten or twelve miles an hour, with the head and 

 neck elevated, so distinctly seen by Captain M'Quhae and 

 Mr Davidson, the former at two hundred, the latter at 

 thirty-five yards' distance. We may fairly dismiss the 

 sea-weed hypothesis. 



Among animals, the Vertebrata are the only classes 

 supposable. But of these, which ? Birds are out of the 

 question ; — but Mammalia, Reptilia, Pisces, — there is 

 no antecedent absurdity in assigning it to either of these. 

 Each of these classes contains species of lengthened form, 

 of vast dimensions, of pelagic habit ; and to each has 

 the creature been, by different authorities, assigned. 



Let us, then, look at the Mammalia. Here Professor 

 Owen would place it ; and his opinion on a zoological 

 question has almost the force of an axiom. I trust I shall 

 not be accused of presumption if I venture to examine 

 the decision of one whom I so greatly respect. It is true, 

 his reasoning applies directly only to the creature seen 

 from the Dcedalus; but we are bound to consider the 

 exigencies not only of that celebrated case, but of all the 

 other well-authenticated cases. 



Professor Owen thus draws up the characters of the 

 animal : — " Head with a convex, moder^ately capacious 

 cranium, short obtuse muzzle, gape not extending further 

 than the eye ; eye rather small, round, filling closely the 

 palpebral aperture ; colour dark brown above, yellowish 

 white beneath ; surface smooth, without scales, scutes, or 



