[Ne. 144. ] REPORTS AND PAPERS. 339 
whale. We know that the sea-serpent has a rather dorso-ventral 
flexibility, for it can swim in vertical undulations, but we know 
too that its lateral flexibility 1s astonishing. I refer to the American 
reports from 1817 to 1819, wherein the animal in turning bent 
its body in the form of a staple, so that its head nearly touched 
its tail, and to the figures of Dr. Biccarp (fig. 37, 38.). 
The sea-serpent, seized by the sperm-whale by the trunk, did 
not bend itself dorsally round the spermwhale’s head, for if this 
had been the case, the captain would have seen the underpart of 
the animal and described its colour as being white. It did not 
bend itself ventrally, for if this had happened, the colour would 
have been described as dark, or black. On the contrary the coils 
are described as longitudinally divided into two sections white and 
black. Consequently the sea-serpent had bent itself laterally. Cap- 
tain Drevar was right in his statement that the colour of the 
belly (under part) was white, and that the back (upper part) of 
the animal was black. 
The sea-serpent in its violent pain raised its long neck high in 
the air and extended its jaws; it is even probable that it uttered 
a roaring sound or shriek, this is not mentioned; it may have 
been drowned by the dreadful noise caused by the fight of these 
two huge monsters, for we may suppose that the sea-serpent was 
not destitute of muscular strength, and must have been a formid- 
able antagonist. Though it is not mentioned, I am _ convinced 
that the “two turns” of the sea-serpent were not always wound 
closely round the whale, but from time to time were loosened to 
be tightened again a moment afterwards. Nor do I set great value 
on the repeated assertion that there were /wo turns; it is impos- 
sible that this has always been seen clearly through such a “boiling 
of the water like a cauldron”. The dimensions of the head and 
tail part being each about thirty feet beyond the coils are certainly 
not exaggerated, as is the circumference or girth “about eight or 
nine feet’. The sea-serpent in its agony evidently paddled with its 
formidable flappers, which caused the water to be thrown like a 
fountain into the air. They therefore cannot have been visible with 
the glasses. The rolling over and over is, Im my opinion, very 
natural in animals of such dimension, fighting in the water, and 
cannot be a result of the serpent “using its extremities as levers’. 
And so they were rolling for about fifteen(?) minutes and at last 
the spermwhale (and not the sea-serpent) dragged its victim down 
to the depths, head foremost. It is a habit of spermwhales , which 
