270 DIVISION I. VERTEBKAL ANIMALS. 



MARINE MONSTERS. 



AVe now proceed to sjicak of certain alleged inhabitants of the sea, whose 

 existence and ciiuracter are involved in so much oljsciirity and mystery that 

 science has hiliicrto failed to place them in any class, family, order, genus, 

 or established species of the animal kingdom. The genus '' /b'coliop/iig," 

 invented by the Boston Linn;ean Society as a designation for the great 

 American sea serpent, is something like a picture-frame without a picture, 

 inasnmch as the conviction is becoming stronger ever^' day, that the family 

 of monsters, for which it was intended, is merely the creation of an excited 

 imaoination. Our own want of faith in the existence of these marvellous 

 animals, does not arise in any disbelief of their possibility ; fur. as Uppian 

 well remarks, "Li iiiari iiialtd Idlent ;" the sea is vast, and capable of hiding 

 in its unknown and profound aliysses tribes of monsters of huger dimen- 

 sions than tiiese. Our incredulity is based on this consideration: as these 

 animals, like all others, are suljjcct to the incident of death, and to the laws 

 of decomposition, it would seem impossible that during so many ages, some 

 remnant, a cranium, tooth, vertebral or other bone, should not lie driven 

 ashore, and in such numbers as to be certain of securing the attention of 

 science. Yet these sui)posed monsters have given no such signs of existence. 

 Not a single bone has ever found its way to any shore, so far as known. As, 

 however, we could not pass over in entire silence this class of alleged crea- 

 tures, we introduce here a brief account of them, drawn from the popular 

 reports, and leave the reader to judge how much of truth may be interwo^•ea 

 with the wild tales of tlie old authors. 



The classic nations of anti(piity had their marine monsters and terrific 

 water serpents, of whiili the dreadfid hydra was one ; and their mythology 

 and poetry are filled with descriptions of these wonderful beings; but the 

 iniagiuation of ancient Greece, and Rome, and Egy[)t never concei\ed the 

 notion of creatures so vast and weird as those described in the chronicles of 

 the Northern Eiu-opean nations. The north was always a land of won- 

 ders, the home of giants, atid the stupendous ash tree, Yggdrasil, whose 

 branches reached aboN e the clouds ; and the active intellect of the people 

 rioted in the wildest tlights of taucy. The vast mountain caverns were filled 

 with gigantic tribes, and the ocean teemed with monsters it is difficult to 

 describe. AVe will commence the natural liiKtorij of the latter with an 

 account of -the following creature, which, however, can scarcely be called a 

 sea serpent. 



Tiiio KtjAKEX. This monster is supposed to dwell on the coast of Nor- 

 way, and the fishermen and mariners of those regions appear to have an 



