Vlll PREFACE. 



1604), that although the evidence then before the public was perhaps 

 insufficient to convince those who had hypotheses of their own to 

 support, yet that it was far too strong for the fact-naturalist, the in- 

 quirer after truth, to dismiss without investigation. To advance such 

 an opinion as this, — to admit the possibility of the existence of a sea- 

 serpent in so enlightened an age as the nineteenth century, — of course 

 led to my being loaded with ridicule ; loaded, but not overwhelmed, 

 for I immediately afterwards ventured on expressing a still bolder 

 opinion, — no less than that of suggesting its affinity to a tribe of animals 

 supposed to be extinct. I stated on the wrapper of No. 54 that the Ena- 

 liosauri of authors would, if living, present the appearances described. 

 Almost immediately after this I published the statement of Captain 

 Sullivan and five other British officers, who deliberately assert (Zool. 

 1715) that they saw — while on a fishing excursion on the coast of 

 British America — a sea-serpent, which they supposed to be eighty or 

 a hundred feet in length ; its head, six feet in length, and its neck, 

 also six feet in length, were the only parts constantly above water, 

 and resembled those of a common snake : the creature passed them 

 with great rapidity, " leaving a regular wake." Nothing is said of any 

 undulating movement, or of any appearance of portions or coils of 

 the body. The statement of Captain M'Quhae (Zool. 2307), and 

 that obligingly furnished expressly for the ' Zoologist ' by Lieu- 

 tenant Drummond (Zool. 2306), essentially corroborate the evidence 

 of Captain Sullivan and his companions: the length and position of 

 the head and neck, and their being kept constantly above water, 

 closely correspond ; the estimated total length corresponds ; the non- 

 observance of any undulation corresponds, — indeed Captain M'Quhae 

 expressly states that no portion of the animal appeared to be used in 

 " propelling it through the water, either by vertical or horizontal 

 undulation." Thus we have two separate statements closely cor- 

 responding with each other, and each statement is vouched for by se- 

 veral British officers whose veracity has never been called in question : 

 under these circumstances we may afford to dismiss from this inquiry 

 all those assertions of American captains which have been treated in 

 this country with such contempt. Resting the evidence solely on the 



