396 THE VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS. [The 6th. ] 
from the faith in the Edda, is repeated by Messrs. H. HE. Srricx- 
LAND and A. G. Metvitie in a note to their dissertation on the 
Dodo, in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 2nd. 
series, Vol. 2, p. 444, Nov. 15? 1848: 
“It has always seemed to us that the fable of the Great Sea- 
Serpent, which first spread in modern times from Norway, was 
to be traced to the myth, m the fine Old Northern Mythology, 
of that fell offsprmg of Loki, Jormungandr, — the great world 
surrounding serpent, whom Thor fished up with the bull’s-head 
bait, and whom, at the great day of Ragnarokr, he shall slay. It 
is curious by the way, that we are expressly told how Jormungandr 
rearing his head, poured out fountains of venom upon Thor, very 
much as old Bishop Egede tells us of the great sea-serpent raising 
up its head and spouting out water.” 
At present every one is convinced of the fact that the reports 
of the great sea-serpent are no fables. 
The seventh explanation, viz. that the “slow motions of basking 
sharks’ evidently caused a deceitful appearance, will be found at 
the end of Mr. Mrrcnitx’s dissertation, printed in 1828, with 
which the reader will remember to have been made acquainted in 
our Chapter on Hoaxes. A basking shark is delineated in our fig. 
8, mn the Chapter on Would-be Sea-Serpents. 
Again this suggestion is made by the well-known palacontologist 
Manrent in a P. S. to a letter addressed by him to the Editor 
of the Illustrated London News, and published there in the 
number of November 4, 1848: 
“P. S. With regard to the existence of the so-called sea-serpent, 
I would beg to remark, that, although it is highly improbable 
that an ophidian, or true snake, of the dimensions and marine 
habits described by our voyagers now exists, yet there is nothing 
to forbid the supposition that there are unknown living forms of 
cartilaginous fishes presenting the general configuration and pro- 
portions of the animals figured in the last Number of the Illus- 
trated London News.” : 
Evidently he meant a shark, of which individuals of more than 
thirty feet are no rarity in the species called basking shark (Squalus 
maximus of Linné). The figures referred to are those of the sea- 
serpent seen by Captain M’Quuaz, (fig. 28, 29, 30). 
