THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



lightish colour, and the belly thereof yellow." 

 According to the log, the ship was becalmed at 

 the time. Mr. Saxby vouches for the correctness 

 of the statement, and adds, that any one is wel- 

 come to see the original record. It augments very 

 considerably the value of this incident, that no 

 suggestion of identity with the Norwegian dragon 

 appears to have occurred to the observer: he 

 speaks of it as "a snake," and nothing more; the 

 dimensions alone appear to have excited surprise, 

 "sixteen or eighteen feet," and these are by no 

 means extravagant. 



On the whole, I am disposed to accept this case 

 as that of a true serpent— perhaps the Boa mu- 

 riiin, one of the largest known, and of very 

 aquatic habits — carried out to sea by one of the 

 great South American rivers, and brought by the 

 Gull' Stream to the spot where it was seen. If I 

 am warranted in this conclusion, it affords us no 

 help in the identification of the great unknown. 



I do not attach much value to the assertions of 

 observers, that the head of the animal seen by 

 them respectively was "undoubtedly that of a 

 snake." Such comparisons made by persons un- 

 accustomed to mark the characteristic peculiari- 

 ties which distinguish one animal from another, 

 are vague and unsatisfactory. Their value, at all 

 events, is rather negative than positive. For ex- 

 ample; if a person of liberal education and general 

 information, but no naturalist, were to tell me he 

 had seen a creature with a head "exactly like that 

 of a snake," I should understand him, that the 

 head was not that of an ordinary beast, nor of a 

 bird, nor that of the generality of fishes ; but I 

 should have no confidence at all that it was not 

 as like that of a lizard as of a serpent; and should 

 entertain doubts whether, if I shewed him the 

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