pee. 118. | REPORTS AND PAPERS. 975 
iating course, keeping its head horizontal with the surface of the 
water, and in rather a raised position, disappearing occassionally 
beneath a wave for a very brief interval, and not apparently for 
purposes of respiration. It was going at the rate of perhaps from 
twelve to fourteen miles an hour, and when nearest , was perhaps 
one hundred yards distant. In fact it gave one quite the idea of a 
large snake or eel. No one in the ship has ever seen anything 
similar, so it is at least extraordinary. It was visible to the naked 
eye for five minutes, and with a glass for perhaps fifteen more. 
The weather was dark and squally at the time, with some sea 
running.” : 
The following article appeared in the Times of Nov. 2d.: 
“Amidst the numerous suggestions of those of your correspondents 
who are disposed to admit the account given by Captain M’Quhae 
of the marine monster seen by him and several of his brother 
officers, on the 6th. of August last, as not altogether imaginary, 
it appears surprising that it should not have occurred to any one 
to suggest an explanation of some apparent anomalies in the 
account, which have no doubt tended to stagger the belief even of 
some readers who are not disposed to assume (any more than my- 
self) that a number of officers im Her Majesty’s navy would 
deliberately invent a falsehood, or could have been deceived in an 
appearance which they describe with such precise details.” 
“One of the greatest difficulties on the face of the narrative and 
which must be allowed to destroy the analogy of the motions of 
the so called “sea-serpent” with those of all known snakes and 
anguilliform fishes, is that no less than sixty feet of the animal 
were seen advancing a fleur d’eau at the rate of from twelve to 
fifteen miles an hour, without it being possible to perceive, upon 
the closest and most attentive inspection, any undulatory motion 
to which its rapid advance could be ascribed. It need scarcely be_ 
observed that neither an eel nor a snake, if either of those animals 
could swim at all with the neck elevated, could do so without the 
front part of its body being thrown into undulation by the pro- 
pulsive efforts of its tail.” 
“But, it may be asked, if the animal seen by Captain M’Quhae 
was not allied to the snakes or to the eels, to what class of 
animals could it have belonged? To this I would reply, that it 
appears more likely that the enormous reptile in question was 
allied to the gigantic Saurians, hitherto believed only to exist in 
the fossil state, and, among them, to the Plesiosaurus.” 
