THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



would refer such a head as that of which Captain 

 M'Quhae has transmitted a drawing to the Ad- 

 miralty, and which he certifies to have been ac- 

 curately copied in the Illustrated London News 

 for October 28, 1848, p. 265. Your Lordship will 

 observe, that no sooner was the captain's atten- 

 tion called to the object, than 'it was discovered 

 to be an enormous serpent,' and yet the closest 

 inspection of as much of the body as was visible, 

 A fleur cTenu, failed to detect any undulations of 

 the body, although such actions constitute the 

 very character which would distinguish a serpent 

 or serpentiform swimmer from any other marine 

 species. The foregone conclusion, therefore, of the 

 beast's being a sea-serpent, notwithstanding its 

 capacious vaulted cranium, and stiff, inflexible 

 trunk, must be kept in mind in estimating the 

 value of the approximation made to the total 

 length of the animal, as '(at the very least) sixty 

 feet.' This is the only part of the description, 

 however, which seems to me to be so uncertain as 

 to be inadmissible, in an attempt to arrive at a 

 right conclusion as to the nature of the animal. 

 The more certain characters of the animal are 

 these:— Head with a convex, moderately capa- 

 cious cranium, short obtuse muzzle, gape of the 

 mouth not extending further than to beneath the 

 eye, which is rather small, round, filling closely 

 the palpebral aperture; colour, dark brown above, 

 yellowish white beneath ; surface smooth, without 

 scales, scutes, or other conspicuous modifications 

 of hard and naked cuticle. And the captain says, 

 'Had it been a man of my acquaintance, I should 

 have easily recognised his features with my naked 

 eye.' Nostrils not mentioned, but indicated in 

 the drawing by a crescentic mark at the end of the 

 nose or muzzle. All these are the characters of the 

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