The 'Pauline' Sea^ Serpent 175 



Dr. Andrew Wilson upon reading this story immedi- 

 ately remembered the yarn of the captain of the 

 ' Pauline,' and very naturally, and I think inevitably, 

 knowing the man, came to the conclusion that it was 

 based upon a similar sight. The Doctor wrote to me 

 asking me for further details, which I gladly supplied, 

 and embodied his reflections in his Science Jottings' 

 column in the next issue of The Illustrated London 

 News. 



Up to a certain point everything that Captain 

 Drevar states, and swears to, is easily explainable, on 

 the hypothesis that he saw a sperm whale devouring 

 a huge calamary. But then the embellishments 

 arrive, several of them not to be ascribed to exaggera- 

 tion through nervous excitement, but obviously put 

 in to round off and complete a good story. For 

 instance, what were the signs of greatest terror ex- 

 hibited by the two attendant whales ? Certainly 

 no whaleman could tell. How could the serpent, even 

 assuming it to lie.'^as the captain does, one hundred 

 or one hundred and seventy feet long, raise its body 

 perpendicularly out of the water to a height of sixty 

 feet ? It was such a pity to spoil a good story by 

 trying to improve it in such a foolish way, that even 

 Dr. Oudemans feels compelled to take 33 1 per cent, 

 off the sixty feet. 



But before leaving Captain Drevar another example 

 of his powers must be given : ' The body (of the whale) 

 disappeared from our view, going down head foremost 

 to the bottom, where no doubt it was gorged at the 

 serpent's leisure ; and that monster of monsters may 

 have been many months in a state of coma, digesting 

 the huge mouthful.' Oh, Captain Drevar ! A huge 

 mouthful indeed for a serpent eight or nine feet in 

 girth to gorge a whale thirty or forty ; for a snake 



