354 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS , [1879.] 
ing past years, dismiss the subject sempliciter, as founded on no 
basis of fact? The answer to such a question must be an emphatic 
negative; since the evidence brought before our notice includes the 
testimony of several hundreds of sane and reasonable persons, who 
in frequent cases have testified on oath and by affidavit to the 
truth of their descriptions of curious marine forms, seen and ob- 
served in various seas. The second supposition, that all of these 
persons have simply been deceived, is one which must also be 
dismissed. For, after making all due allowance for exaggeration , 
and for variations in accounts arising from different modes of ex- 
pression and even from mental peculiarities in the witnesses, there 
remains a solid body of testimony, which, unless there is some 
special tendency to mendacity on the part of persons who travel 
by sea, we are bound, by all the rules of fair criticism and of 
evidence, to receive as testimony of honest kind. As I have else- 
where observed: There are very many calmly and circumstantially 
related and duly verified accounts of serpentine, or at any rate, 
of anomalous marine forms, having been closely inspected by the 
crew and passengers of vessels. Hither, therefore, we must argue 
that in every instance the senses of intelligent men and women 
must have played them false, or we must simply assume that they 
are describing what they have never seen. The accounts in many 
instances so minutely describe the appearance of such forms, in- 
spected from a near standpoint, that the possibility of their being 
mistaken for inanimate objects, as they might be.if viewed from 
a distance, is rendered entirely improbable. We may thus, then, 
affirm firstly that there are many verified pieces of evidence on 
record, of strange marine forms having been met with, — which 
evidences, judged according to ordinary and common sense rules, 
go to prove that certain hitherto undescribed marine organisms do 
certainly exist in the sea-depths.” 
“The first issue I must therefore submit to the reader, as re- 
presenting one of a large and impartial jury, is, that the mass of 
evidence accumulated on the sea-serpent question, when weighed 
and tested, even in a prima facie manner, plainly shuts us up to 
the belief that appearances, resembling those produced by the 
presence in the sea of huge serpentine forms, have been frequently 
noted by competent and trustworthy observers. Unless we are to 
believe that men and women have deliberately prevaricated, and 
that without the slightest excuse or show of reason, we must 
believe that they have witnessed marine appearances, certainly of 
