| The Ist. | THE VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS. 
reports, people had gotten to doubt 
their foundation, and supposed it 
was only a number of porpuses 
following each other in rapid suc- 
cession.” 
For the fourth time we read in 
Frortigp’s Wotizen, Vol. XIX, p. 193: 
“Christiania, September 5, 1827. 
Last week several persons saw large 
shoals of porpoises, and therefore 
uttered the supposition that the 
alleged presence of the sea-serpent 
was not right.” 
Mr. Mircuini’s paper, of 1828, 
which we have inserted 7” /¢ofo in 
our Chapter on hoaxes, also ends 
with the supposition that the “gam- 
bols of porpoises” have given rise 
to all the tales of the sea-serpent. 
ScHiEGEL in his ssat sur la 
physionomie des Serpens, La Haye, 
1837, p. 105, in his chapter on 
Fables respecting snakes says: 
“We are surprised to hear of a 
sea-serpent, monstrous in shape 
and size’, 
and he refers to his chapter on 
true sea-snakes, the Mydrophidae. 
There p. 517 he ends his chapter 
with the following words: 
“Before ending the history of the 
interesting beings of which I have 
treated, I cannot help saying a few 
words about an animal, observed 
through centuries by many people 
of all ranks, and known to every 
one from the tales which are spread 
38 | 
Fig. 52. — Phocaena phocoena (Linné). 
about it, but which is still ignored by naturalists. I mean the 
monstrous sea-serpent of the North, which in reality has nothing 
to do either with the sea-snakes, of which we have treated in the 
foregoing pages, or with my work. The numerous evidences given 
