THE ZooLocist— FEBRUARY, 1876. 4807 
all twenty-three inches and one-eighth, and in greatest girth at the com- 
mencement of the dorsal fin eleven inches, and weighs four pounds one 
ounce anda half. Accompanying this giant were two others, one twenty 
inches and three-quarters in length, and the other seventeen inches and 
one-eighth long.— Thomas Cornish ; Penzance, January 12, 1876. 
Great Sea Serpent.—‘ Zanzibar, October 21. Captain Dewar, of the 
barque ‘ Pauline,’ bound with coals for Her Majesty's Naval Stores at 
Zanzibar, when in lat. 5° 18’ 8” S., long. 85° W., observed three very large 
sperm whales, and one of them was gripped round the body with two turns 
by what appeared to be a large sea serpent. Its back was of a darkish brown 
and its belly white, with an immense head and mouth, the latter always 
open ; the head and tail had a length beyond the coil of about thirty feet; 
its girth was about eight feet or nine feet. Using its extremities as levers, 
the serpent whirled its victim round and round for about fifteen minutes, 
and then suddenly dragged the whale down to the bottom head first. On the 
13th July this or another sea serpent was again seen about two hundred yards 
off the stern of the vessel, shooting itself along the surface, forty feet of the 
body being out of the water at the same time.”—Rev. E. L. Penny, M.A., 
Chaplain to H.M.S.‘ London.’ “ In confirmation of the recent sea serpent 
and whale combat witnessed off Brazil by the barque ‘ Pauline,’ from Shields, 
with coals for the guard-ship ‘ London,’ at Zanzibar, a letter has been received 
at Plymouth from J. H. Landells, the second officer of the ‘ Pauline.’ He 
says there were five whales near the ship; the largest was attacked by a 
serpent. The reptile coiled two complete turns round the thickest part of 
the whale’s body, and appeared possessed of complete power over the fish. 
The whale, in an agony either of pain or terror, was continually throwing 
itself half out of the water. He considers the serpent to have been at least 
one hundred and fifty feet in length.”"—‘ Reuter,’ November 22, 1875. 
[There can be no hesitation in explaining this narrative, if true, to have 
reference to a gigantic cephalopod: it would be a marvellous instance of 
just retribution, for the whales feed on cephalopods, if the cephalopods every 
now and then devour a whale by way of retaliation.—H. Newman.] 
Proceedings of Scientitic Societies, 
ZooLocicaL Society or Lonpon. 
January 4, 1876,—Prof. A. Newton, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the 
chair. 
The Secretary read a report on the additions that had been made to the 
Society’s Menagerie during the month of December, and called particular 
