THE LARGE SEA-SNAKE. 185 



to some commoner sea-animal of large size ; but the testimony 

 of a Scoresby, who during his frequent Arctic voyages never 

 saw anything of the kind, would have been more convincing. 



If to this account of Egede be added the reports of some 

 other northern divines, such as Pontoppidan, the missionary 

 Nicholas Grrsemius, and Maclean, who either pretend to have 

 actually seen the monster or write about it from hearsay — and 

 the testimony of a few seamen, among others of Captain 

 M'Quhae of the Daedalus, who, on the 6th of August, 1848, 

 saw a sea-snake on his homeward voyage from the East Indies ; 

 we have all the evidence extant in favour of the existence ot 

 the monstrous animal. 



In opposition to these testimonies, incredulous naturalists beg 

 to remark, that no museum possesses a single bone of the huge 

 snake, and that its body has nowhere been found swimming on 

 the ocean or cast ashore. They therefore agree with Professor 

 Owen in regarding the negative evidence, from the utter absence 

 of any recent remains,, as stronger against their actual existence 

 than the positive statements which have hitherto weighed with 

 the public mind in favour of their reality ; and believe that a 

 larger body of evidence from eye-witnesses might be got 

 together in proof of the reality of ghosts than in proof of the 

 existence of the great sea-serpent. 



The plain truth seems to be that lines of rolling porpoises, 

 resembling a long string of buoys, first gave origin to the 

 marvellous stories of the fabulous monster. For, keeping in 

 close single file, and progressing rapidly along the calm surface 

 of the water by a succession of leaps or demivaults forward, 

 part only of their uncouth forms appears to the eye, so as to 

 resemble the undulatory motions of one large serpentiform 

 animal. 



02 



