72 WOULD-BE SEA-SERPENTS. 
that this fish is not a new animal unlike any of the ordinary pro- 
ductions of nature, and we are indebted to the zeal and liberality 
of Mr. Meason and Mr. Laing, who have collected a sufficient 
body of evidence to enable me to determine that poimt, and prove 
it to be a Squalus, and the orifices behind the eye, which com- 
municate with the mouth met with in the skull, renders it very 
probable, that it is a Squalus maximus.” 
“This opinion is further confirmed by the Squalus maximus, 
known by the name of the basking shark, being frequently seen 
upon the coast of Scotland.” 
The only remark J have to make is: Mr. Home will never 
have believed that the animal of Stronsa really measured 56 feet, 
and so made himself guilty of throwing discredit on the accurate 
measuring of the eye-witnesses. 
I present here to my readers the figure of a Squalus maximus , 
or Basking-shark, thus enabling them to make this animal’s ac- 
quaintance, if they don’t know it yet. 
Fig. 8. — Squalus maximus, Linné. 
Of course Mr. Barcuay rejected Mr. Homn’s supposition, and 
wrote a paper against it, printed in the first volume of the above 
mentioned Memoirs, running as follows: 
“Since reading the first paper of Mr. Home, where he treats of 
the vertebrae of the Squalus maximus, I have seen another, en- 
titled “An anatomical account of the Squalus maximus’. In this 
last paper, he seems to be convinced, that the animal of Stronsa 
is a Squalus maximus. The scale on which he draws his figure of 
the squalus, is a scale of half an inch to a foot.” | 
“Measuring by this scale, the head of his squalus is five feet 
and a half, from the jomt of the upper jaw to the gills. The 
