1842 Sea-Serpent. 



tion more complacently devoted to ridicule by all but universal consent, than that of 

 the existence of huge serpent-like animals in the North Atlantic Ocean. The very 

 mention of the name of sea-serpent in the singular number with the definite article 

 prefixed, suggests to most minds an idea of some anomalous monster, without parentage 

 or congeners, feigned to haunt the recesses of the deep, and, like the ghost of vulgar 

 superstition, manifesting itself now and again for the sole conceivable end of adorning 

 some wonderful legend. This impression, favoured by the circumstance of no actual 

 specimen having ever occurred to the observation of a naturalist, much less been ob- 

 tained for deliberate examination, has caused the subject of our notice to rank with 

 the mermaid, the unicorn, the griffin, and other prodigies of the olden faith. It does 

 not fail to be objected that Norway, a locality most fruitful in accounts of the appear- 

 ances in question, has been immemorially distinguished for a vivid perception of the 

 marvellous. Nor, after hearing the other side of the Atlantic, are we much better 

 able to divest our minds of suspicion with regard to the trustworthy character of the 

 witnesses ; our relative in the west having acquired nearly as much celebrity for the 

 endowment of a grand inventive genius as his Scandinavian ally in the cause of sea- 

 serpents. They differ indeed, in so far as the latter believes and venerates his own 

 creations, while the American indulges his fancy for the purely benevolent purpose of 

 what is called " hoaxing " the unwary public. Not many years since, it may be re- 

 collected, one of these pleasant philosophers enlightened his fellow-mortals with a 

 " true and particular " description of certain winged inhabitants assumed to have 

 been discovered in the moon by an eminent living astronomer, giving the details with 

 so much simplicity and affected candour with regard to some particulars, in the man- 

 ner of ' Gulliver's Travels,' that many readers were not aware of its being a fabrication. 

 Such proofs of a disposition to practise on the public credulity, too often repeated, ne- 

 cessarily communicate a colouring of insincerity to all other reports of strange events 

 emanating from the same source, and certainly demand the exercise of an unusual 

 amount of circumspection, though they do 'not justify scepticism, in the case now 

 before us. 



Making due allowance for these peculiarities in the testimony, we may, neverthe- 

 less, proceed in a spirit of induction to examine into the tendency of the collateral 

 evidence. The question after all, when reduced to its simplest form, comes to be 

 little more than one of geographical distribution. That is to say, that even if we 

 choose to confine the animal to the true serpents, which has been the ordinary concep- 

 tion heretofore, there is no obvious impediment to oppose it, either on the score of 

 want of analogy, or of structural incapacity. Amphibiousness, to commence with, in 

 its popular acceptation, or the capability of spending a considerable time in the wa- 

 ter, is one of the most familiar properties of serpents, as illustrated in the common 

 snake (Coluber natrix) and the viper, the only two species, if we except the blind- 

 worm, ascertained to be indigenous to these islands. " Snakes," observes Professor 

 Bell (* History of British Keptiles') "are extremely fond of the water, taking to it 

 readily, and swimming with great elegance and ease, holding the head and neck above 

 the surface. It is extremely probable that they resort to the water in search of frogs." 

 In the learned system of Schlegel, translated by Professor Traill — the ' Physiognomy 

 of Serpents' — members of various ophidian groups are characterised as living near and 

 inhabiting lakes and rivers. Some belong to the genera Tropidonotus (which here 

 includes the first named British species), and Homalopsis, comprised under the head 

 of * Fresh-water Scrpmls.' Of the Boas, this author says, " several species frequent 



