288 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS , [N° dea] 
“The Captain could discover no fins, but “something like the 
mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of sea-weed, washed about 
its back.” He thought that its head did certainly resemble that 
of a snake; but the drawing which he transmitted to the Admi- 
ralty has not, to the eye of a naturalist, the form of that of any 
snake. The figure published in the J//ustrated London News for 
October 28, 1848, is said to be an accurate copy of that drawing.” 
“Captain M’Quhae estimates the length of its body at the sur- 
face of the water, “a fleur d'eau, at the very least equal to sixty 
feet. no part of which was to our perception used in propelling 
it through the water, either by vertical or horizontal undulations. 
It passed rapidly, but so close under our quarter, that had it been 
a man of my acquaintance, I should easily have recognized his 
features with the naked eye, and it did not, either in approaching 
the ship, or after it had passed our wake, deviate in the slightest 
degree from its course to the S. W., which it held on at the pace 
of twelve or fifteen miles an hour, apparently on some determined 
purpose.” 
“If we may judge from the engraving, the cranium is very 
convex, of moderate size, with a short obtuse muzzle, a mouth 
reaching beyond the eye; which last organ is round, and of a 
moderate size. The surface of the body is represented as smooth, 
and destitute of scales — of which they were enabled to judge, 
because it passed close under the quarter of the ship. It was in 
sight for twenty minutes.” 
“The description certainly does not belong to any Ophidian; and 
as certainly militates against an opinion thrown out by Mr. Owen, 
that it might be a specimen of the /eonime seal, which has, it is 
alleged, occasionally reached those latitudes. The leonine seal never 
exceeds twenty-five feet in length, and such would have a circum- 
ference at its shoulders of twenty feet, while this appears to be 
eel-shaped, with a diameter of not more than fifteen or sixteen 
inches behind the head; the mane too, of the male of the leonine 
seal extends only over the head and neck; but in the other, it 
extended down the back.” 
“With all deference to so eminent a naturalist as Mr. Owen, I 
humbly conceive that his conjecture respecting the identity of Cap- _ 
tain M’Quaae’s animal with the leonine seal, is not more probable 
than Home’s identification of the Basking shark with the Orkney 
animal.” 
“Both M’Quaar’s and the Orkney animal would appear to be 
