2324 Reptiles— Fishes. 



debated, as well as such could be in the brief space of time allowed for so doing, that 

 it was pronounced to be a serpent by all who saw it, and who are too well accustomed 

 to judge of lengths and breadths of objects in the sea to mistake a real substance and 

 an actual living body, coolly and dispassionately contemplated, at so short a distance 

 too, for the ' eddy caused by the action of the deeper immersed fins and tail of a 

 rapidly-moving gigantic seal raising its head above the surface of the water,' as Pro- 

 fessor Owen imagines, in quest of its lost iceberg. 



" The creative powers of the human mind may be very limited. On this occasion 

 they were not called into requisition, my purpose and desire being, throughout, to 

 furnish eminent naturalists, such as the learned Professor, with accurate facts, and not 

 with exaggerated representations, nor with what could by any possibility proceed from 

 optical illusion ; and I beg to assure him that old Pontoppidan having clothed his 

 sea-serpent with a mane could not have suggested the idea of ornamenting the creature 

 seen from the Daedalus with a similar appendage, for the simple reason that I had 

 never seen his account, or even heard of his sea-serpent, until my arrival in London. 

 Some other solution must therefore be found for the very remarkable coincidence be- 

 tween us in that particular, in order to unravel the mystery. 



" Finally, I deny the existence of excitement or the possibility of optical illusion. 

 I adhere to the statements, as to form, colour and dimensions, contained in my official 

 report to the Admiralty, and I leave them as data whereupon the learned and scien- 

 tific may exercise the ' pleasures of imagination ' until some more fortunate opportu- 

 nity shall occur of making a closer acquaintance with the ' great unknown ' — in the 

 present instance most assuredly no ghost. P. M'Quh^, late Captain of Her Majesty's 

 ship Daedalus." — 'Times,' November 21, 1848. 



Peculiarity in the Eyes of Frogs.— When lately examining a specimen of the 

 edible frog, I unintentionally touched one of bis eyes, on which he immediately closed 

 that eye, and very soon afterwards the other, and drew them into his head until they were 

 perfectly on a level with its surface : after the lapse of half a minute he slowly opened 

 and projected one eye, and then the other, until both had assumed their ordinary pro- 

 jecting appearance : on repeating the experiment I found that he could withdraw or 

 project them at pleasure, after the manner of a snail's horns, although of course the 

 operation is a much less observable one. I am not certain that the other British frog 

 has the same power, but I think it extremely improbable that a discrepancy in such a 

 character should exist between two species so closely allied. — Edward Newman. 



Capture of an enormous Trout at Drayton Manor. — A trout weighing upwards of 

 21 lbs., and measuring 4l£ inches in length, was taken, on the 4th of November, 

 in a small tributary of the Trent, on the property of Sir Robert Peel, at Drayton 

 Manor. It was transmitted to London by Sir Robert, and a faithful portrait of the 

 fish has been painted for the honorable baronet by Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins. — Ed- 

 ward Newman. 



