718 WOULD-BR SEA-SERPENTS. 
Prof. Dr. W. F. Ericuson, the well known Editor of the Archiv 
fiir Naturgeschichte, expressed his opinion about the animal of 
Stronsa, immediately after the appearance of Mr. Raruxn’s disser- 
tation. After having given full details of Mr. Barcuay’s paper, and 
an ample description of the saved parts, he says: “All these parts 
belong undoubtedly to a shark,” and: 
“Everard Home already declared the animal to be a shark, and 
in spite of all that Dr. Barclay asserts to the contrary, it will be 
so for ever, only it may not have been a Selache maxima, but a 
Lamna cornubica, which also reaches a considerable length. So the 
animal of Stronsa has no relation at all with the sea-serpent of the 
Norwegians. ” 
I have only to observe that I am surprised that Mr. Ericuson 
could arrive at this conclusion, as the Lamna cornubica, or por- 
beagle has never attained a length above 18 feet. — Our fig. 10 
represents a porbeagle. 4g 
Fig. 10. — Lamna cornubica (Linn.). 
It is astonishing, yet it is true, that Mr. Newman, the Editor 
of the Zoologist, after all that had been written about the animal 
of Stronsa, was not yet convinced of its being a shark. In his 
journal of 1849, p. 2358, he asked the following 
“Inquiries respecting the bones of a large marine animal cast 
ashore on the Island of Stronsa in 1808.” 
“In the “Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society” 
(vol. I. p. 418) is a paper by Dr. Barclay, on a large animal cast 
ashore on the island of Stronsa. In illustration of his paper, the 
Doctor figures the head with a vertebra attached, four other 
vertebrae and a sternum with a paddle “and two parts correspon-— 
ding two scapulae’ attached. He speaks of the originals of these 
figures as specimens then before the audience he was addressing. — 
rah ers i 
