WOULD-BE SEA-SERPENTS. 81 
remark, that if the Stronsa Animal was not a shark it was cer- 
tainly not the great sea-serpent, which, if it does exist, will most 
likely be allied to the Plesiosauri of by-gone days, and to which 
the animal seen by the Rev. Mr. Maclean, Higg-Island (Wern. 
Mem. I. p. 442), seems to have borne a strong resemblance. — 
Jas. C. Howden; Musselburgh, February, 1849.” 
As to the animal seen by Mr. MacuEan, see our report n°. 31, 
in the following chapter. 
One would think that the question about the “animal of Stronsa” 
was now set at rest. Not at all! Dr. Tsaomas Srewarr Train 
wrote a paper about it, published in the Proceedings of the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh, Vol. III, n°. 44, 1854, June, comparing 
it with the animal seen by the Captain, officers and crew of H. 
M. S. Daedalus (see our report n°. 118 in the next chapter). The 
part of his dissertation, respecting the “animal of Stronsa” runs 
-as follows: 
“The discussions which arose about four years ago on the animal 
reported to have been seen on 6th. August 1848, by Captain 
M’Quhae, the officers and crew of H. M. S. Daedalus, in the 
Southern Atlantic, between the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena, 
about 300 miles off the African shore, recalled my attention to 
the materials I had collected respecting the vast animal cast ashore 
on Stronsey, one of the Orkneys, in 1808.” 
“T was not there at the time, but copies of the depositions made 
by those who had seen and measured it were transmitted to me 
by order of Malcolm Laing Hsq., the historian of Scotland, on 
whose property it was stranded; and I obtained other notes from 
several individuals resident in Okney.” | 
“The evidence of the most intelligent persons who had seen and 
measured the animal was carefully collected, and copies of it were 
transmitted by Mr. Laing to Sir Joseph Bankes, and other natur- 
alists. Soon afterwards Mr. Laing sent, through his brother, the 
late Gilbert Laing Meason, to the Museum of our University the ~ 
skull and several vertebrae. The cartilaginous omoplates, to which 
a portion of the pectoral fin, or wimg, as it was termed by the 
natives, were afterwards sent to Edinburgh, where I saw and exam- 
ined them.” 
“Two of the vertebrae were transmitted to me with portions of 
what was termed the mane of the animal, which I now exhibit.” 
“The dead animal was first observed by some fishermen lying 
on a sunken rock, about a quarter of a mile from Rothiesholm- 
6 
