1906.] AX UNKNOWN MARINE ANIMAL. 721 



fast, and quickly drew away from the object, Avliich was going very 

 slowly. It moved its neck from side to side in a peculiar manner : 

 the colour of the head and neck was dark brown above, and 

 vvdiitish below — almost white, I think. "When first seen it was 

 about level with the poop of the yacht, and on the starboard 

 side. I made it out by the chart to be in about S. lat. 7° 4', 

 long. 34° 20', but I think this is not quite correct. Mr. Kicoll 

 got the correct j)Osition from the captain. The depth of the 

 water where we saw it was about 300 fathoms, but quickly went 

 to as much as 1300 fathoms. Since I saw this creature I con- 

 sider on reflection that it was probably considei'ably larger than 

 it appeared at first, as I proved that objects, the size with which 

 I was well acquainted, appear very much smaller than they really 

 a.re when seen on the ocean at a similar distance with nothing 

 to compare them with." E. G. B. Meade-Waldo. 



"At 10.15 a.m. on Thursday, December 7, 1905, when in lat. 

 7° 14' S., long. 34° 25' W., in a depth of from 322 to 1340 fathoms, 

 Meade- Waldo and I saw a most extraordinary creature about 

 100 yards from the ship and moving in the same direction, but very 

 much slower than we were going. At fixst, all that we could see 

 was a dorsal fin about four feet long sticking up about two feet 

 from the water ; this fin was of a brownish-black colour and 

 much resembled a gigantic piece of ribbon seaweed. Below the 

 water we could indistinctly see a very large brownish-black patch, 

 but could not make out the shape of the creature. Every now 

 and then the fin entirely disappeared below the water. (Suddenly 

 an eel-like neck about six feet long and of the thickness of a man's 

 thigh, having a head shaped like that of a turtle, appeared in 

 front of the fin. This head and neck, which were of the same 

 colour above as the fin, but of a silvery-white below, lashed iip 

 the water with a curious wriggling movement. After this it 

 was so far astern of us that we could make out nothing else. 



" During the next fourteen hours w^e ' went about ' twice and 

 at about 2 a.m. the following day (Dec. 8th), in lat. 7^ 19' (S., 

 long. 34° 04' W., the first and third mates, Mr. Simmonds and 

 Mr. Harley, who w^ere on the bridge at the time, saw a great 

 commotion in the water. At first they thought it was a rock 

 awash about 100-150 yards away on the port side, just aft of the 

 bridge, but they soon made out that it was something moving 

 and going slightly faster than the ship, which at that time was 

 doing about 8| knots. Mr. Simmonds hailed the deck, and one 

 of the crew who was on the ' look-out ' saw it too. Although 

 there was a bright moon at the time they could not make out any- 

 thing of the creature itself, owing to the amount of wash it was 

 making ; but they say that from the commotion in the water it 

 looked as if a submarine was going along just below the surface. 

 They both say most emphatically that it was not a whale, and 

 that it was not blowing, nor have they ever seen anything like it 

 before. After they had watched it for several minutes it 

 ' sounded ' off the port bow, and they saw no more of it." 



Michael J. Nicoll. 

 48* 



