[ Ne. 126. | REPORTS AND PAPERS. 303 
is well known to us. Or all these protuberances were merely vert- 
ical undulations. 
Attention was first paid to it by the broken action of the water, 
which otherwise was smooth all around. So the animal first swam 
for a moment just below the surface, a habit which we have often 
observed in foregoing reports. The general colour of the body was 
black, but under the jaw was a quantity of loose skin, like a 
pouch, of a lighter colour than the rest of the animal. As to the 
description of the colour of the animal’s throat, it agreed with 
foregoing statements. As to the loose skin, and the pouch, this is 
also only explicable by the animal’s having a skin just like sea- 
lions. It is so loose and folds so easily, that if the head is bent 
a little downward, or if the neck is somewhat contracted , several 
folds are seen, which led Captain Brown (n°. 56) to mention 
“eight gills under the neck’. He had better have written “gill- 
splits’, meaning the furrows between the folds. — The length of 
180 feet may be somewhat exaggerated, though we will afterwards 
prove that individuals of still greater length must exist. 
1Z@. — 1855, August? — In the letter from Capt. G. H. 
Harrineton to Rear-Admiral W. A. B. Hamitron, dated Liver- 
pool, February 8, 1858, which letter will be inserted afterwards, 
we read: 
“J am informed by Messrs Lamport and Holt, shipowners of 
this place, that one of their captains reported a similar thing about 
two years ago, off the Island of St. Helena, but they took no 
further notice of it, supposing that he might have been deceived.” 
I am convinced that the captain really saw a sea-serpent. The 
reader will, I hope, be convinced of it himself, after having read 
Captain Harrineton’s report (n°. 131). 
128. — 1856, March 30. — Jilustrated London News of the 
3d. of May, 1856). 
“To the Editor of the Llustrated London News.” 
“Imogen, Channel, 15th. April, 1856.” 
“Sir. — We beg to hand you the enclosed Sketch of a Sea-Serpent 
we had the good fortune to sight on the 30th. of March last.” 
