[1753. | REPORTS AND PAPERS. 135 
further on he tries to explain the considerable length of the animal 
some witnesses speak of; the Bishop namely believes that two or 
more individuals followed each other, for they are only seen in 
rutting-time. And in his tenth paragraph, trying to answer the 
question, why those large serpents only frequent the northern seas, 
he says: 
“To this question I answer that the Creator of all beings disposes 
of the dwellings of His different creatures in different places by 
His wise intentions, which are not to be known to us. Why won't 
the reindeer thrive anywhere but in the high and cold mountains? 
Why do the whales frequent only the north pole? Why are India 
and Egypt almost the only countries, where men have to fear 
crocodiles? No doubt because it pleases the wise Creator.” 
Here Pontopripan takes leave of the Sea-Serpent, and begins to 
treat of the large snakes mentioned by Prinius and: other ancient 
authors, and we too will take leave of our honest and trustworthy 
Bishop, who has so often been laughed at for what he relates in 
his chapter on monsters. And yet two of his monsters, the mermaids 
and the Kraken, are unmasked, why cannot his third be accoun- 
ted for?! 
Now let us again collect all the facts which are not impossible 
from a zoologist’s poimt of view. 
We have before us an animal of the followmg imperfect de- 
scription : 
The whole length of this animal far surpasses one hundred feet, 
and the smallest individual ever seen measured eighteen feet. ‘The 
greatest thickness or diameter seems to be in the foremost third of 
its whole length, and in large individuals surpasses ten or even 
fifteen feet. Its head is small in reference to the body, its xeck is 
long and slender, round as the body of a snake or eel; the thick 
trunk too is round: The ¢az/ is also round, thinner than the body 
and gradually grows thinner to its end, which is pointed. The 
animal has four flappers. The foremost are probably found about 
one fourth of the length, the hindmost probably in the middle of 
the whole length. The skin of the animal is hairy or woolly as a 
seal-skin; when wet it is smooth and glittermg as a mirror. A 
long mane hangs down from the neck, and that mane is sometimes 
described as resembling sea-weed; when dry, the mane is whitish, 
