350 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS, [N°. 148. ] 
At all events the fins have nothing to do with the sea-serpent. 
This is also the opinion of Mr. Lez, who asserts: “The combina- 
tion of them with long flippers, and the turtle-like mode of swim- 
ming, forms a zoological enigma which I am unable to solve.” 
We will first speak of the account Lieutenant Haynes wrote on 
the 6th. of June, when at Gibraltar. The sea was perfectly smooth , 
and he saw the ridge of fins. He took his glasses and instead of 
fins he distinctly saw something quite different. In the short time 
that he fixed his glasses, the ridge of fins had no doubt disap- 
peared, and the huge animal emerged. The owners of the fins 
were evidently frightened at the approach of the sea-serpent. Lieut. 
Haynes “distinctly saw a head, two flappers, and about thirty 
feet of an animal’s shoulder’. We may safely add: and a long 
neck connecting this head with the shoulder, and we may safely 
read for shoulder: a part of its back. The head was about six 
feet thick, the neck narrower, about four or five feet; consequently 
the animal had stretched its neck as forward as possible. The back , 
on the level of the flappers, was about fifteen feet broad, “and 
the flappers each about fifteen feet m length. The movements of 
the flappers were those of a turtle.” I should like to say: were 
those of a sea-lion, for a sea-turtle cannot possibly elevate its 
flappers so high above the surface of the water, while sea-lions 
are able to do so. Moreover the fashion is the same, that is to 
say, the paddling happens alternately, 1.e. when the right flapper 
is brought as forward as possible to commence the act of paddling, 
the left one is kept as backward as possible, nearly touching the 
trunk, having just brought the act of paddling to an end. “The 
animal resembled a huge seal, the resemblance being strongest 
about the back of the head.” This is in my opinion the most 
remarkable statement of this report. We have more than once met 
with the comparison of the head or face of the animal with that 
of a seal, but Lieutenant Haynus clearly states the animal (seen 
from behind) resembled a seal. “I could not see the length of the 
head, but from its crown or top to just below the shoulder (where 
it became immersed) I should reckon about fifty feet.’ Going by 
known descriptions and figures, we may suppose that the length 
of the head may have been between eight and nine feet. When 
from the top of the head to just below the shoulder the length is 
estimated at about fifty feet, I reckon that the neck of the animal 
must have been one of forty feet, reckoning two feet from the 
top of the head to the occiput, and eight feet from the flappers 
4 
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