NA TURE 



\_Nov. 1 8, i8So 



of error in arguing from a single species, that little importance 

 should be attactied to conclusions drawn from it. 



Assuming them however to be specifically identical, a; I 

 myself believe them to be, and to have required precisely the 

 same temperature, I tliink Prof. Ilaughton's case is not quite so 

 strong as he Relieves. The present mean winter temperature of 

 Bournemouih in lat. 5°° 43' i^ 37° 4'> but the physical surround- 

 ings of Bournemouth are not now such as conduce to luxuriant 

 forest grou th, even if its temperature sufficed, and the conditions 

 there in the Eocene time more probably assimilated to those of 

 the south-west coasts of Ireland at the present day. 



Now the mean of the coldest month at Valentia, lat. 51° 44', 

 is 44°, and it may be fairly assumed that if Valentia were a 

 degree farther south, corresjjonding to Bournemouth, the tem- 

 perature would be one degree higher ; and if sheltered by moun- 

 tains from all the northerly winds as Glengariff is, the mean 

 might po-sibly be raised to 46°. Thus but 11° are required to reach 

 the minimum of 57° supposed to be required by his Araucaria. 

 Again, although the Moreton Bay Pine does not appear to sup- 

 port a less mean annual temperature than 67^ to 70° between 

 the Clarence and the Bellin^Jen, which are its southern limits 

 in Australia, it flourishes and ripens seeds in Madeira in a mean 

 of 64° 96', and although I have only noticed it in two gardens 

 near the sea-level, I think it has only been excluded from others 

 higher up the mountains in favour of the far more striking 

 Araucaria CKcdsa. Moreover from its present restricted area it 

 appears to be a declining type, \vhich may, when more widely 

 distributed, and possibly in presence of fewer competing species 

 in remote Eocene time, have sustained greater extremes of 

 climate. 



Taking the species, however, as it exists, and apart from any 

 such possibilities, uniformitarians have, it seems to me, but to 

 account for an increase of 14° to 15°, that is if Bournemouth were 

 near its northern limit, as seems probable from its having grown 

 at or near the sea-level. 



Supposing, as all evidence fends to prove, that Northern 

 Europe and America were connected by continuous land in 

 Eocene time, would not the mere fact of shutting off the Arctic 

 Seas cause a general and perhaps sufficient rise of temperature ? 

 In N. lat. 70° Prince Albert Land has a mean of only 5° Fahr., 

 and Lapland one of 32°, a difference of no less than 27°, caused 

 solely by the presence of an Arctic ice-laden current. The 

 general cooling effect of incessmt oceanic circulation between the 

 North Pole and the Tropics is, I think, scarcely taken into suffi- 

 cient account, and although it may be contended that conversely 

 the northerly flow of the Gulf Stream mitigates climate, I think 

 that its action in Europe is chiefly in fending off the ice-laden 

 currents from our coasts, the limit of trees penetrating quite as 

 far north in Siberia away from the coast as at the North Cape, 

 where they are under its influence. J. Starkie Gardner 



Order Zeuglodontia, Owen 



In August 184S H.M.S. Dadalns encountered off St. 

 Helena a marine animal, of which a representation appeared in 

 the Illustrated Nnos of the latter part of that year. It is thirty- 

 two years since I saw this figure, but I recollect that it w.as one 

 of a blunt-nosed animal with a neck carried about four feet above 

 the v/ater, which was so long a^ to present the appearance of a 

 serpent ; and I remember that Prof. Owen, in combating at 

 the lime the idea that this was a sea-serpent, pointed out that 

 the position of the gape in relation to the eye, ai shown in the 

 figure in the Illustrated Nnvs, was that of a mammal, and not 

 th^t of a reptile ; in consequence of which he argued that the 

 animal seen was probably only a leonine seal, ' whose track 

 through the water gave an illusory impression of great length. 

 This idea, however, seemed to me untenable in the face of the 

 representation in the Illustrated News ; but it was obvious that to 

 affjrd the buoyancy necessary for the support above the water 

 of so long a neck (estimated on that occasion as sixty feet, though 

 only the part near the head was actually out of the water), the 

 submerged portion of the animal could not have had the shape 

 of a serpent. 



Two or three years after thi-, on reading the description of 

 Zeu^lodon cetoides, from the Tertiary (probably Upper Eocene) 

 formations of Alabima, it struck me that the animal seen from 

 the Padalus may have been a descendant of the order to which 

 Zeuglodon lelonged ; and I have ever since watched with interest 

 for reports of the "great sea-serpent." 



Three years ago the following appeared in the newspapers :— 



"Borough of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster 

 to wit. 

 "We the undersigned, captain, officers, and crew of the 

 barque Pauline (of London) of Liverpool, in the county of 

 Lancaster, in the United Kingdom of Great I3ritain and Ireland, 

 do solemnly and sincerely declare that on July 8, 1S75, in lat. 

 5°'3' S., long. 35° W., we observed three large sperm-whales, 

 and one of them was gripped round the body with two turns of 

 what appeared to be a huge serpent. The head and tail 

 appeared to have a length beyond the coils of about 30 feet, and 

 its girth 8 or 9 feet. The serpent whirled its victim round and 

 round for about fifteen minutes, and then suddenly dragged the 

 whale to the bottom head fir=t. 



"George Drevar, Master 

 " Horatio Thompson 

 "John Henderson Landells 

 "Owen Baker 

 "William Lewarn 



"Again, on July 13, a slmikar serpent was seen about 200 

 yards off, shooting itself along the surface, head and neck being 

 out of the water several feet. This was seen only by the captain 

 and one ordinary seaman, whose signatures are affixed. 



"George Drevar, Master." 



"A few moments after it was seen elevated some sixty feet 

 perpendicularly in the air by the chief officer and the following 

 able seamen, whose signatures are also affixed — 



" Horatio Thompson 

 "William Lbwarn 



"And W3 make this solemn decliration, &c. 



"Severally declared and subscribed at Liverpool aforesaid, 

 the loth day of January, 1S77, before 



"T. S. Raffles, J.P. for Liverpool." 



The locality here specified was about thirty miles off the 

 northern coast of Brazil. 



In this account I thought that I recognised the grip of the 

 whale by the long neck of the attacking animal, the appearanci! 

 being confounded into the double coil of a serpent by the 

 distance and motion of the objects ; but in face of the general 

 ridicule h hich has been attached to this subject, and being with- 

 out any assurance thai the declaration so purporting to be made 

 was genuine, I did not venture to ventilate my long-cherished 

 idea. A relative of mine, however, just returned from India, 

 chancing to say that two of the officers of the steamer in which she 

 went out had on the previous voyage witnessed an immense 

 animal rear its neck thirty feet ont of the water, and that a sketch 

 of the object had been instantly made, and on reaching port 

 sent to the Graphic, I obtained the number of that paper for 

 July 19, 1879, and I inclose a tracing of the figures in it, which 

 are accompanied by the following statement in the Graphic : — 



" The accompanyi.ig engraving is a/ac-simile of a sketch sent 

 to Us by Capt. Davison, of the steamship Kiushiu maru, and is 

 inserted as a specimen of the curious drawings which are fre- 

 quently forivarded to us for insertion in the pages of this journal. 

 Capt. Davison's statement, which is countersigned by his chief 

 officer, Mr. McKechnie, is as follows : — ' Saturday, April 5, at 

 11.15 a.m.. Cape Satano distant about nine miles, the chief 

 officer and myself observed a whale jump clear out of the sea, 

 about a quarter of a mfle away. .Shortly after it leaped out 

 ajain, when I saw that there was something attached to it. 

 Got glasses, and on the next leap di-tinctly saw something 

 holding on to the belly of the whale. The latter gave one more 

 spring clear of the water, and myself and chief then observed 

 what appeared to be a large creature of the snake species rear 

 itself about thirty feet out of the water. It appeared to be 

 about the thickness of a junk's mast, and after standing about 

 ten seconds in an erect position, it descended into the water, the 

 upper end going first. With my glasses I made out the colour 

 of the beast to resemble that of a pilot fish.' " 



As I have not been able to find any description of the skeleton of 

 the Zeuglodon, I venture to draw attention to the subject through 

 your columns, in the hope that among your many readers in 

 America this letter may attract the notice of some one who will 

 tell us whether what is known of the osseous structure of Zeuglodon 

 cetoides is or is not consistent with the representation in the 

 Graphic, The remains of this cetacean, supposed to be extinct, 

 indicate, according to Sir Charles Lyell, that it was at least seventy 



