[The 8th. ] THE VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS. 399 
lengthened form should not exist in this order. The testimony of 
Colonel Steele, who represents his animal as spouting, points in 
this direction.” 
The sea-serpent seen by Colonel SreeLe, however was not a 
cetacean, although it was observed spouting, for it had a red 
back-fin like a saw (see our Chapter on Would-be Sea-Serpents , 
1852, Aug. 28). — 
The ninth explanation is Mr. R. Bakewen.’s. In FRorizp’s No- 
tizen, Vol. 40, n°. 879, of June, 1834, we read: 
“With regard to the often mentioned and much questioned great 
American Sea-Serpent Mr. R. Bakewell, in the latest edition of 
his Introduction to Geology, Chapt. 16, p. 312, has expressed the 
opinion that the great sea-serpent often seen on the coasts of the 
United States of America probably belonged to a genus of reptiles 
which may be analogous to the fossil Ichthyosaurus, and that the 
description, given of the sea-serpent, as having flappers like sea- 
turtles, and formidable mandibles like a crocodile, was agreeing 
more with that of a saurian than with that of a snake. Some of 
the people who saw the sea-serpent state that the body was very 
long and as thick as a water-cask.” 
Though in 1872 the majority apparently believed the sea-serpent 
to be a living Plesiosaurus, yet we meet with the following sug- 
gestion, in the September number of Wature of that same year. 
“The following extract from an evening contemporary well illus- 
trates the hazy ideas prevalent as to the extinct Saurian monsters 
of which the sea-serpent is supposed to be a descendant: — “If 
the sea-serpent continues in its present sociable state of mind, we 
may perhaps have an opportunity of deciding the vexed question 
regarding the formation of that portion of his figure which, accord- 
ing to English observers, he keeps concealed under the water. The 
legend of the Lambton Worm, a popular tale in the North of 
England, describes the worm as a serpent of enormous size, who 
used to coil himself round a hill overhanging the River Wear, 
just as thread is wound round a reel, but a very ancient stone 
effigy of the creature which lately existed at Lambton Castle, re- 
presents it with ears, legs and a pair of wings. If this effigy was 
made, as it probably was, from some recollection on recent tradition 
of the Lambton Worm, these adjuncts would indicate that the 
beast was one of the winged land monsters which existed at the 
