254. THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS , [N° 104. ] 
“What an extraordinary creature the Daedalus seems to have 
fallen in with! The description recalls to my mind an extraordinary 
appearance we witnessed in the Blossom, in crossing tlhe South 
Atlantic: I took it for the trunk of a large tree, and before I 
could get my glass upon deck it had disappeared, and I could 
nowhere find it — fresh breezes at the time.” 
As Captain Brrcuy writes “recalls to my mind”, the “extraor- 
dinary appearance’ must have taken place some time ago, say 
ten years; so I have chosen the year 1838, as the year in which 
it happened. If I may ever get the opportunity to learn the exact 
year or date, I shall be glad to correct my supposition in an 
eventual second edition. But for the present I am sure that the 
“trunk of a large tree’ which had so suddenly disappeared , really 
was a sea-serpent. 
Repeatedly we have already quoted Dr. Hamtnron’s work about 
the Amphibious Carnivora, which appeared in the year 1839. The 
writer sums up numerous reports and accounts, which he cited 
from other works, or from which he gave only short extracts. One 
would say that Dr. Haminron is an unbeliever, for he ends his 
chapter on this animal with the words: 
“With these extracts, and without farther comment, we close 
our account of the Great Sea-Serpent, only remarking, that till 
favouring circumstances bring the animal under the examination of 
Naturalists, the satisfaction, which is desiderated respecting it, is 
scarcely to be expected.” 
I only ask, what then was the reason that he spoke of it, and 
that he published these extracts in a book, which properly treated 
of Amphibious Carnivora or the Pinnipeds (seals, walrusses, sea- 
lions and sea-bears)? May it be, that he observed any relation 
between them and the sea-serpent? I cannot believe it, for after 
the sea-serpent he treats of the Kraken in the same volume. And 
why did he end in such a vague way? May it be, because he could 
not give an explanation, or because he hesitated to show the pu- 
blic that he was really a believer? 
105. — 1839, August? — According to Froriep’s Neue No- 
tizen, vol. XII, n°. 248, of Oct., 1889, the Boston Mercantile 
