THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



verted 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. 



I'.iii 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 ani- 

 mal ;* and it would be absurd in the highest de- 

 gree 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'Qnhae 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 Yertebrata are the only 

 classes supposable. But of these, which? Birds 

 are out of the question ;— but Mammalia, Beptilia, 

 I'iscrs, — there is no antecedent absurdity in assign- 

 ing it to either of these. Each of these classes 

 contains species of lengthened form, of vast dimen- 

 sions, of pelagic habit ; and to each has the crea- 

 ture been, by different authorities, assigned. 



Let us, then, look at the Mammaba. 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 pre- 

 sumption if 1 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 DsedaJue; but we are bound to con- 

 sider 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 distance is estimated at half a mile on both occasions. 

 (See the accounts of Captains Herriman and Smith.) 

 325 



