328 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS, (N°. 13871404 
of unbelievers. The guess that a little seal was magnified by Cap- 
tain M’Quhae into a monster several hundred feet in length is 
simply incredible: we smile at the conceit, and that is all.” 
So he is again converted into a firm believer, but he does not 
now express any supposition as to the kind of animal that it may be. 
W411, 142, 143. — 1873, November 162, 172, 182 — 
I have not been able to get a sight at the Zimes of Nov. 20th. of 
this year, but I have found an extract from an account in it, in 
the Zoologist of December of that year, p. 3804, running as follows: 
“Mr. Joass, an eye-witness, writing in the Zzmes of November 20, 
says, “the ears seemed to be diaphanous and nearly semicircular 
flaps or valves over-arching the nostrils, which were in front. The 
cavity of the eye appeared to be considerably further back, and a 
peculiar glimmer in it, along with the sudden disappearance of the 
creature, presented, indeed, the only signs of its vitality, as far as 
I could see, while I watched it for half an hour, apparently drift- 
ing with the rising tide, but always keeping about the same dis- 
face! col “shore; 2. Dr. Soutar and I are more or less familiar 
with the forms of the porpoise, seal, halibut, conger, and even 
shark , both in and out of the water.” 
In the same journal and on the same page we read the following 
“Jixtract from a letter from Mr. Joass, of Golspie, to the Rev. 
John Macrae, of Glenelg :” 
“On Thuesday afternoon last, lady Florence Leveson Gower and 
the Hon. Mrs Coke, driving near the sea, about eight miles east 
from Dunrobin, saw what seemed to them a large and long marine 
animal; on Wednesday morning Dr. Soutar, of Golspie, saw a 
large creature rushing about in the sea, about fifty yards from shore: 
it frequently raised what seemed a neck seven feet out of the 
water, and from the length of troubled water behind it appeared 
to be fifty or sixty feet long. He said to his family on meeting 
them at breakfast, “If I believed in sea-serpents, I should say I 
had seen one this morning’. I may mention that this gentleman 
is a most trustworthy observer and cautious man. On Thursday I 
saw what seemed some drift sea-weed. When your report was 
published Dr. Tayler, the author of “Thanatophidia of India” was 
at the castle; I asked him what he thought of the matter, and 
he said he was quite prepared to believe in such a monster. 
