1846 Sea-Serpen t . 



tellect, but quite unconscious that such things had ever existed, may have all honestly 

 striven, more or less, to mould their visual perception into accordance with the 

 familiar notion suggested by its general outline ; and thus have given rise to the con- 

 fusion objected to in their reports. Be this as it may, the discovery by Mr. Darwin 

 of marine saurians, though but three or four feet long, about some of the South Sea 

 islands, contradicts any assumption that animals approaching to it in character are no 

 longer extant. To account upon this supposition likewise for the hide-and-seek 

 sort of life which those in question seem to lead, it may be observed that " the breath- 

 ing-holes of the Plesiosaurus differ from those of all other existing reptiles, and re- 

 semble those of whales." They are placed " near the highest part of the head, where 

 they would enable the animal most readily to breathe without exposing anything more 

 than the apertures themselves above the water, corresponding admirably with the ma- 

 rine habits of the animal as indicated by the structure of its extremities," (Ansted's 

 ' Ancient World,' 1847). 



Without committing myself to anything more than a belief that the subject is one 

 fairly entitled to be considered an open question — open to the unrestrained testimony 

 of future casual observers, equally with the criticism of the scientific — I feel as- 

 sured that I cannot better express the opinion which every candid peruser of what has 

 been stated must be prepared to arrive at, than by using the words of a naturalist who 

 has given his attention to these remarks. " The argument appears to me perfectly 

 satisfactory in favour of at least a suspension of judgment on the subject. The ques- 

 tion is whether the evidence is such as would induce any man to believe, whose mind 

 was prepossessed with no notions at all respecting it. Should we credit the testimony, 

 if the animal to which it relates were claimed to be a mere variety ? T think we 

 should." 



Charles Cogswell. 

 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury. 



accomplished, and the stag was said by Buffon to have disappeared south of the bor- 

 der prior to 1760, although still to be met with in Somerset and Devon. The same 

 hurry to exterminate has elicited rebuke with regard to the beaver in France, the ibex 

 in the Pyrenees, the elk, bison, &c. in their respective localities. There is a current 

 tradition among the North-American Indians of a gigantic wild beast destructive to 

 their forefathers, which answers from their description to the Megatherium ; this crea- 

 ture's bones are found in company with those of the horse ; the latter, although long 

 refused to the New World, is strongly suspected to be of native origin, independently 

 of its introduction by Europeans since the period of Columbus. 



See the volume on ' Horses,' with the appended memorandum by Col. Hamilton 

 Smith, forming part of the l Naturalist's Library.' 



