Incredulity of High Authorities 1 77 



shark, such as another well-authenticated serpent 

 stranded at Stronsa and given as sixty to eighty feet 

 long was proved to be and reduced in length by about 

 one-half. For myself, I believe that the officers of 

 the ' Dasdalus,' being, like most sailors, very careless 

 and casual observers of marine fauna, did see a huge 

 sulphur-bottom whale [Balaenoptera sulphureus), which 

 is slender, has a comparatively small head, attains 

 a maximum length of one hundred and fifty feet, 

 and a speed of sixteen knots. 



But any attempt to show that the tellers of some 

 Sea-serpent stories were truthful and honest, according 

 to their lights, only seems to arouse animosity among 

 those curious savants who appear to think life would 

 not be worth living without belief in a gigantic snake. 

 They will not hear of any natural explanation of 

 the strange sights reported by veracious seamen, 

 and entirely ignore Professor Owen's calm dictum, 

 that had Sea-serpents of the dimensions so often given 

 existed, some remains must have been found, for 

 such creatures would be often on the surface to breathe 

 and could not fail to have deposited relics of themselves 

 on some shore or other. Only one joint of a vertebra 

 would have been sufficient, says the Professor, to have 

 established the Sea-serpent's identity scientifically. 

 But that illuminating fragment has never been forth- 

 coming. 



It has been assumed that the Zeuglodon is not 

 extinct, although a recent specimen has never been 

 found, and the fossils are found in the tertiary deposits. 

 It is also assumed that the creature may be a Plesio- 

 saurus, which has survived the lapse of ages in that 

 mysterious realm, the depths of the sea. But certainly 

 none of the Sea-serpent stories, honestly told, are 

 insusceptible of feasible logical explanation by those 



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