88 WOULD-BE SEA-SERPENTS. 
As to the sketch, made by Mr. Prrrim after the descriptions of 
one of the witnesses, and with regard to the “mane” somewhat 
altered by Mr. Sym, it will appear at a glance that besides the 
ridiculous legs, the head (read skull) of it is drawn too large. The 
carrion was 56 feet long and the drawing only 74 lines, conse- 
quently the length of one foot is represented by a space of 1.3 
line. A skull of 14 inches should therefore be in this drawing 
only 1.5 line long, and not 6 lines. Last not least, the “mane” 
is not delineated on only three different places, as it really was, 
but from the “shoulders” to the end of the tail, according to the 
wrong conclusions of those “most intelligent eye-witnesses’! This 
terrible “mane” was evidently the omy cause of all this trouble, 
and of the whole puzzle! 
1816. — Phil. Mag., LIV, 1819). — The third sea-serpent de- 
scribed by Mr. Rarinzsave (for he believes there are several species), 
is called by him: 
“3. The Scarlet Sea-Serpent. This was observed in the Atlantic 
Ocean, by the captain and crew of an American vessel from New- 
York, while reposing and coiled up, near the surface of the water, 
in the summer of 1816. It is very likely that it was a fish, and 
perhaps might belong to the same genus with the foregoing; I 
shall refer it thereto, with doubt, and name it Octipos? coccineus. 
Entirely of a bright crimson; head acute. Nothing further descriptive 
was added in the gazettes where the account was given, except 
that its length was supposed to be about 40 feet.” 
Fig. 11. — A large calamary, swimming on the surface of the Sea. 
I am convinced that this “sea-serpent” was a great calamary. As 
the greatest ever found, measured from the tip of the tail to the 
tips of the extended shorter arms about 30 feet (a calamary repos- 
ing or swimming in the sea always has its long tentacular arms 
coiled up), the length of 40 feet probably is exaggerated. I give 
here a figure of a large calamary, swimming on the surface of the 
