PREFACE. 



reflections of scenes and aspects in nature, which 

 in my own mind awaken poetic interest, leaving 

 them to do their proper work. 



If I may venture to point out one subject on 

 which I have bestowed more than usual pains, 

 and which I myself regard with more than com- 

 mon interest, it is that of the last chapter in this 

 volume. An amount of evidence is adduced for the 

 existence of the sub-mythic monster popularly 

 known as "the sea-serpent," such as has never 

 been brought together before, and such as ought 

 almost to set doubt at rest. But the cloudy un- 

 certainty which has invested the very being of 

 this creature; its home on the lone ocean; the 

 fitful way in which it is seen and lost in its vast 

 solitudes; its dimensions, vaguely gigantic; its 

 dragon-like form ; and the possibility of its asso- 

 ciation with beings considered to be lost in an 

 obsolete antiquity ; all these are attributes which 

 render it peculiarly precious to a romantic natu- 

 ralist. I hope the statisticians will forgive me if 

 they cannot see it with my spectacles. 



P. H. G. 



Torquay, 1860. 



iv 



