172 Sea^ Serpents 



In 1845 Dr. Albert C. Koch exhibited a large 

 skeleton of a fossil animal under the name of Hydrarchos 

 Sillimanni, the latter half of the portentous name being 

 in honour of the learned editor of The American Journal 

 of Science and Arts, Professor Benjamin Silliman, well 

 known for his affectionate regard for the Sea-serpent. 

 The remains consisted of a head and vertebral column, 

 measuring in all one hundred and fourteen feet, of a 

 few ribs attached to the thoracic portion of the spine, 

 and some parts of supposed paddles. Of course the 

 scientific journals took up the discussion of this won- 

 derful discovery with avidity, and a few months after- 

 wards Professor Wyman, in The Proceedings of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History, had the courage and 

 skill to point out that ' these remains never belonged 

 to one and the same individual, and that the anatomical 

 character of the teeth indicates that they are not those 

 of a reptile, but of a warm-blooded mammal.' In the 

 next month's Proceedings of the same Society, Professor 

 Rogers points out that, according to the form and 

 structure of some loose bones, the skeleton must be 

 of at least two individuals of Basilaurus, a fossil 

 monster allied to the seals and whales, which Professor 

 Owen termed Zeuglodon. In the next month's issue 

 Dr. Koch informs the public that the bones had been 

 found together and were arranged in the precise order 

 in which they were discovered. But a Dr. Lister wrote 

 to say that he knew that Dr. Koch had dug up the bones 

 in different places in Alabama. 



However, the yam was not kiUed, hardly scotched, 

 and the ' fossil Sea-serpent ' stiU yielded a plentiful 

 harvest of dollars. And in The Illustrated London News 

 of October 28, 1848, Professor SiUiman ventures to 

 state, in the hope apparently that the previous con- 

 tradictions would be forgotten, ' that the spinal column 



