Reptiles. 2311 



marine monster seen by him and several of his brother officers, on the 6th of August 

 last, as not altogether imaginary, it appears surprising that it should not have occurred 

 to any one to suggest an explanation of some apparent anomalies in the account, which 

 have no doubt tended to stagger the belief even of some readers who are not disposed 

 to assume (any more than myself) that a number of officers in Her Majesty's navy 

 would deliberately invent a falsehood, or could have been deceived in an appearance 

 which they describe with such precise details. 



" One of the greatest difficulties on the face of the narrative, and which must be 

 allowed to destroy the analogy of the motions of the so-called ' sea-serpent ' with those 

 of all known snakes and anguilliform fishes, is that no less than 60 feet of the animal 

 were seen advancing & fleur d'eau, at the rate of from twelve to fifteen miles an hour, 

 without it being possible to perceive, upon the closest and most attentive inspection, 

 any undulatory motion to which its rapid advance could be ascribed. It need scarcely 

 be observed that neither an eel nor a snake, if either of those animals could swim at 

 all with the neck elevated, could do so without the front part of its body being thrown 

 into undulation by the propulsive efforts of its tail. 



But, it may be asked, if the animal seen by Captain M'Quhae was not allied to the 

 snakes or to the eels, to what class of animals could it have belonged ? To this I 

 would reply, that it appears more likely that the enormous reptile in question was al- 

 lied to the gigantic Saurians, hitherto believed only to exist in the fossil state, and, 

 among them, to the Plesiosaurus. 



" From the known anatomical character of the Plesiosauri, derived from the ex- 

 amination of their organic remains, geologists are agreed in the inference that those 

 animals carried their necks (which must have resembled the bodies of serpents) above 

 the water, while their progression was effected by large paddles working beneath — the 

 short but strong tail acting the part of a rudder. It would be superfluous to point out 

 how closely the surmises of philosophers resemble, in these particulars, the description 

 of the eye-witnesses of the living animal, as given in the letter and drawings of Capt. 

 M'Quha?. In the latter we have many of the external characters of the former, as 

 predicated from the examination of the skeleton. The short head, the serpent-like 

 neck, carried several feet above the water, forcibly recal the idea conceived of the ex- 

 tinct animal; and even the bristly rnane in certain parts of the back, so unlike any- 

 thing found in serpents, has its analogy in the Iguana, to which animal the Plesiosaurus 

 has been compared by some geologists. But I would most of all insist upon the pe- 

 culiarity of the animal's progression, which could only have been effected, with the 

 evenness and at the rate described, by an apparatus of fins or paddles not possessed 

 by serpents, but existing in the highest perfection in the Plesiosaurus. F. G. S." — 

 1 Times,' November 2, 1848. 



[Will the writer oblige me with his name ? — E. N.~\ 



The Great Sea-Serpent. — " As some interest has been excited by the alleged ap- 

 pearance of a sea-serpent, I venture to transmit a few remarks on the subject, which 

 you may or may not think worthy of insertion in your columns. There does not ap- 

 pear to be a single well-authenticated instance of these monsters having been seen in 

 any southern latitudes ; but in the north of Europe, notwithstanding the fabulous 

 character so long ascribed to Pontoppidan's description, I am convinced that they both 

 exist and are frequently seen. During three summers spent in Norway I have re- 

 peatedly conversed with the natives on this subject. A parish priest residing on 

 Romsdal fjord, about two days' journey south of Drontheim, an intelligent person, 



