102 | WOULD-BE SEA-SERPENTS. 
serpent a Plesiosaurus, an extraordinarily developed Hydrophis, or 
a large Calamary (4rchiteuthis). 
But none of them hit on the plan to put all the accounts, 
tales, and reports of this great unknown animal side by side, to 
point out the statements which are immediately recognizable as 
strange, or explicable by reference to some known animal, and 
finally to decide which of the known animals may have been bold 
enough to present itself as a deceitful serpentine creature, or, if 
the result is negative and leads to the conclusion that the sea- 
serpent does not belong to any known species of animal, to decide, 
what kind of animal does exist, though unknown to zoologists ! 
And to this inquiry we pass now. 
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