402 | THE VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS. [The 10th. | 
i 
Fig. 61. — Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus , restored. 
“To which group of known animals, however, this being belongs, 
cannot of course be asserted with any certainty. The supposition , 
however, is very near, that it is closely related to that animal 
which in 1816” (read 1808) stranded in Stronsa, one of the 
Orkney’s,” &c. 
After a short description of this animal with which the reader 
will remember to have been made acquainted in the Chapter on 
Would-be Sea-Serpents, Mr. Ratraxe concludes: 
“that this animal resembled a P/esiosaurus, and that it thus 
belonged to the Amphibia, viz. to the Saurians. Now if such were 
the case, and if the creature found in Stronsa were closely related 
to the sea-serpent of the Norwegians, and we have every reason 
to believe this, it is astonishing that the latter has not been more 
observed, than has been the case. For being an Amphibium, which, 
according to its organization, can only breathe by lungs, the sea- 
serpent necessarily must have come very often to the surface of 
the water, to renew the inhaled air. It is, however, conceivable 
and probable that stretching out its long neck, it generally comes 
only with the nose tip and only for a very short time on the 
surface of the water, remaining under it with the rest of the body, 
in which circumstances it will not be easy to observe it amongst 
the beating of the waves.” 
We observe that Mr. Ratuxs, like Prof. Sirnman, inclines to 
believe that the sea-serpent is, or is allied to the Pleszosaurus. 
