1848-49 THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT 323 



at the Zoological Gardens died, and provided 

 Owen with a subject for dissection and description 

 in a paper which he contributed to the Zoological 

 Society. 



In the following month Sir Robert Peel pre- 

 sented him with an enormous trout weighing 

 22\ lbs., caught in the Tame, near Tarn worth. ' It 

 is an extraordinarily handsome fish,' Owen writes 

 (November 6), 'with most brilliant colours.' A por- 

 trait of this huge fish was painted shortly after- 

 wards, and was presented by Sir Robert Peel to 

 Professor Owen. 



But another water-monster was then occupying 

 public attention. Several persons of undoubted 

 veracity declared that they had seen the ' Great 

 Sea-serpent,' and brought much corroborative 

 detail into their accounts, which were clearly given 

 yi good faith. The description given of a sea- 

 monster which was reported to have been seen 

 by the officers and crew of H.M.S. 'Daedalus' 

 attracted more than the usual notice, for the posi- 

 tion and intelligence of the observers guaranteed 

 the truth of their story. Considerable correspon- 

 dence ensued, and Owen made a strong attack upon 

 the identification of the creature, and extended 

 his arguments so as to include the improbability 

 or mistaken nature of other statements which had 

 preceded it. He founded his arguments on the 

 fact that in all the stories and drawings of supposed 

 great sea-serpents there was no undulation at all 



