[The 10th. ] THE VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS. 4.03 
Mr. Epwarp Newman, the Editor of the Zoologist, in 1847, on 
the wrapper of the 54th. number of this Journal made the sug- 
gestion that sea-serpents may belong to one of the Hnalosaurians. 
I have not seen this wrapper so that [ am unable to give the 
words in which this supposition was written. 
Most probably Mr. Newman took this suggestion from Mr. 
RatTHKEs above mentioned dissertation, all the accounts of which 
he inserted (N. B.!) im the same number of the Zoologist; but it 
is, of course, possible that this supposition really was the product 
of his own brain. We hope that the latter was the case; but I only 
ask: why did he insert the accounts of Mr. Ratuxs in the co- 
lumns of the issue, and why zo¢ the above-mentioned suggestion ; 
what was the reason to communicate it on the wrapper? It makes 
on me the impression as if Mr. Newman waited to see if some 
one or other would perhaps find out that doth accounts and sup- 
position were already six years old! But, of course, I may be 
mistaken ! 
Immediately after reading this suggestion on the above mentioned 
wrapper, Mr. Caaries Cocsweni wrote for the same Journal his 
Plea for the Sea-Serpent. For history's sake I repeat here his 
whole paper. It runs as follows: 
“4 Plea for the North-Atlantic Sea-Serent. By Cuarues Coas- 
wELL, M. D.” 
“Every generation of man is born to stare at something, which 
so long as it eludes their understanding, is a very African fetish 
to the many, and a Gordian knot to the few.” 
Hawkins Memoirs of Ichthyosaurt and Plesiosaurt. 
“Of the numerous contributions supplied through the press to 
support the cause of the subject of this article, one of the most 
recent has arrested my attention, because of the particulars having 
been long since familiar to me by oral communication from the 
writer in person. I allude to the interesting narrative contained in 
the “Zoologist” for May last, describing a meeting with such an 
animal off the coast of one of the British provinces, stretching out 
into the Atlantic to the north-east of New England. It is worthy 
of notice that several animals of the Cetaceous kind (sometimes 
conjectured to have been a source of deception) were seen and 
scanned im limine, and an opportunity was thus afforded for imme- 
diate descrimination. Immediately subjoined is another statement, 
copied from a foreign newspaper, beimg the tribute of a French 
sea-captain to the same object, but qualified with so much of the 
