THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



rapid rate, without any undulation, by an ap- 

 paratus altogether invisible, — the powerful pad- 

 dles beneath; while the entire serpentine neck 

 would probably be projected obliquely, carrying 

 the reptilian head, with an eye of moderate aper- 

 ture, and a mouth whose gape did not extend 

 behind the eye. Add to this a covering of the 

 body not formed of scales, bony plates, or other 

 form of solidified integument, but a yielding, 

 leathery skin, probably black and smooth, like 

 that of a whale; give the creature a length of 

 some sixty feet or more, and you would have 

 before you almost the very counterpart of the 

 apparition that wrought such amazement on 

 board the D.vdalus. The position of the nostrils 

 at the summit of the head indicates, that, on first 

 coining to the surface from the depths of the sea, 

 the animal would spout in the manner of the 

 whales, — a circumstance reported by some ob- 

 servers of the sea-serpent. 



I must confess that I am myself far more dis- 

 posed to acquiesce in this hypothesis than in any 

 other that has been mooted. Not that I would 

 identify the animals seen with the actual Plesio- 

 saurs of the lias. None of them yet discovered 

 appear to exceed thirty-five feet in length, which 

 is scarcely half sufficient to meet the exigencies 

 of the case. I should not look for any species, 

 scarcely even any genus, to be perpetuated from 

 the oolitic period to the present. Admitting the 

 actual continuation of the order Enaliosaurin , it 

 would be, I think, quite in conformity with gen- 

 eral analogy to find important generic modifica- 

 tions, probably combining some salient features of 

 several extinct forms. Thus the little known 

 Pliosaur had many of the peculiarities of the 

 Plesiosaur, without its extraordinarily elongated 

 335 



