476 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. T. No. 116. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



THE FLORIDA SEA-MONSTEE. 



Since the publication of the brief note in 

 Science, March 5th, I have made additional 

 studies of the specimens received, which con- 

 firm the cetacean affinities more definitely. 

 The extreme firmness and toughness of the 

 thick elastic masses of integument show that 

 the structure must have been intended for re- 

 sistance to blows and to great pressure, and 

 could not have pertained to any part of an 

 animal where mobility is necessary. They are 

 composed of a complex of strong elastic connec- 

 tive tissue fibers, like those of cetaceans. There 

 are no muscular fibers present in any of the parts 

 sent. This lack of muscular tissue and the re- 

 sistant nature of the integument are sufficient 

 to show that the creature could not have been 

 a cephalopod, for in that group a highly con- 

 tractile muscular tissue is essential. 



The structure found is closer to that of the 

 integument of the upper part of the head and 

 nose of a sperm whale than to that of any other 

 structure known to me. It is probable, there- 

 fore, that the great bag-shaped mass represents 

 nearly the whole upper part of the head of 

 such a creature, detached from the skull.* 



A rough area, shown in the latest photo- 

 graphs of the under side of the upturned mass, 

 may indicate the area that was attached to the 

 skull. It may have belonged to a very large 

 example of a common sperm whale, with an ab- 

 normally developed and perhaps diseased nose; 

 if not, then it probably pertains to some en- 

 tirely unknown creature of the same family. 

 It seems hardly probable that any such large 

 cetacean remains to be discovered. The shape 

 of the mass, and especially of the large, round, 

 closed end supposed to represent the nose, is 

 quite unlike the head of the sperm whale, which 

 is truncated high and narrow in front and pro- 

 jects but little beyond the upper jaw. More- 

 over, nothing corresponding to the blowhole of 

 a sperm whale has been discovered. Some of 

 the photographs show an indentation near the 

 large end on the upper side, but Dr. Webb in- 



* This view has been adopted by me in an article 

 now in type for the next number of The American 

 Journal of Science. 



formed me that it was only a pit or ' sulcus ' 

 about two feet long and six inches deep, per- 

 haps due to injury. The internal cavity, so far 

 as made out, seems to be unlike that of the 

 sperm whale. Therefore, the view that it may 

 he from an abnormal or normal sperm whale 

 must be regarded as a supposition or theory 

 that still needs more evidence to support it, 

 but is at present the most plausible. 



A. E. Vekrill. 

 New Haven, March 12, 1897. 



the floeida monster. 



Professor Vereill would be justified in 

 making a much more emphatic statement (see 

 Science for March 5th) than that the structure 

 of the masses of integument from the ' Florida 

 monster ' resembles blubber, and the creature 

 was probably related to the whales. The sub- 

 stance looks like blubber, and smells like blub- 

 ber and it is blubber, nothing more nor less. 

 There would seem to be no better reason for 

 supposing that it was in the form of a 'bag- 

 like structure ' than for supposing that stumps 

 of arms were present. The imaginative eye 

 of the average untrained observer can see much 

 more than is visible to anyone else. 



F. A. Lucas. 



Washington, D. C, March 8, 1897. 



GIBBERS. 



Obseevees the world over have reported, in 

 wind-swept places, the occurrence of pebbles 

 having carved and polished surfaces due to the 

 action of the natural sand blast. German geolo- 

 gists first called these pebbles ' Kan tegerolle,' 

 from the edges ground on them by intersecting 

 planes of wear. Walther next proposed to call 

 them ' facettengerolle,' because the facets were 

 the essential features, the edges resulting from 

 the development of the planes. But not all 

 sand-blasted pebbles are facetted. Planes and 

 edges are not more common than concave sur- 

 faces and pits ; or, as Gilbert found in the 

 Wheeler Survey, a vermicular fret-work wear 

 of the rock surface. For these reasons the name 

 ' glyptolith ' was proposed by the writer in an 

 account of the pebbles seen in southern New 

 England. (Am. Jour. Sci. XL VII., 1894, pp. 



