62 WOULD-BE SEA-SERPENTS. 
tecture the fishing-tackle known by the name of silk-worm gut) 
hung down like a mane. On each side of the body were three 
large fins, shaped like paws, and jointed. The body was unluckily 
knocked to pieces by a tempest; but the fragments have been 
collected by Mr. Laing, and are to be transmitted to the Museum 
at’ Edinburgh. Mr. Neill concluded with remarking, that no doubt 
could be entertained that this was the kind of animal described 
by Ramus, Egede, and Pontoppidan, but which scientific and 
systematic naturalists had hitherto rejected as spurious and ideal.” 
In the meeting of the same Society on the 14th. of January, 
1809, (see Phil. Mag. Vol. 33. p. 90.), 
“Dr. John Barclay communicated some highly curious observa- 
tions which he had made on the caudal vertebrae of the Great 
Sea-Snake, (formerly mentioned) which exhibit in their structure 
some beautiful provisions of Nature, not hitherto observed in the 
vertebrae of any other animal.” 
“And Mr. Patric Neill read an ample and interesting account 
of this new animal, collected from different sources, especially let- 
ters of undoubted authority, which he had received from the Orkneys. 
He stated, however, that owing to the tempestuous season, the 
head, fin, sternum, and dorsal vertebrae, promised some weeks 
ago to the University Museum at Edinburgh, had not yet arrived ; 
but that he had received a note from Gilbert Meason, esq., (the 
gentleman on whose estate in Stronsa the sea-snake was cast.) 
intimating that they might be expected by the earliest arrivals 
from Orkney. In the mean time, he submitted to the Society the 
first sketch of a generic character. The name proposed for this new 
genus was Halsydrus, (from adg the sea, and vdgog a water snake) ; 
and as it evidently appeared to be the Soe-Ormen described above half 
a century ago, by Pontoppidan, in his Natural History of Norway, 
it was suggested that its specific name should be H. Pontoppidani.” 
Mr. Matcotm Laine and Dr. Grant, living on Stronsa, were 
requested to take down the affidavits of the eye-witnesses, and at 
the meeting of the Wernerian Society on the 11th. of February, 
1809, (see Phil. Mag. Vol. 33. p. 251), 
“the Secretary (Mr. P. Neill) laid before the Society copies of 
those affidavits made before the justices of peace at Kirkwall m 
Orkney, by several persons who saw and examined the carcass of — 
the great sea snake (Halsydrus Pontoppidani) cast ashore in Stronsa 
in October last; with remarks illustrative of the meaning of some 
passages in these affidavits.” 
