436 THE VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS. [The 12th. ] 
whales must offer a striking spectacle, but in none of the accounts 
of the sea-serpent the “bunches” or visible parts of the vertical 
undulations surpassed the length of a fathom, whilst the visible 
parts of the backs of spermwhales measure several fathoms, and 
the distance between two of these 
y backs in a row of spermwhales is 
enormous. ‘The supposition, more- 
over, does not explain the head 
resembling that of a snake, and 
\ kept constantly above water, neither 
: the long neck accidentally observed, 
\ the long and pointed tail, &c. 
f The thirteenth explanation sup- 
poses that the sea-serpent may be 
a still living Basilosaurus, an ex- 
tinct marine mammal, first described 
by Harnan in the year 1824; af- 
terwards the name was changed to 
that of Zeuglodon by Prof. Ricuarp 
Owen. Fig. 65 represents the skel- 
eton of a Basilosaurus. This animal 
lived in the tertiary periods. Almost 
all the characters of the skeleton 
remind us of Pinnipeds, only a 
few of Cetaceans, and so it is still 
doubtful to which order it belongs. 
OD ama et 
=o 
mes 
‘SI 
eh) 
‘palojsol suanesopiseg 
‘SnINVsOTISeg JO UOJOTOYS — "eg ‘Sy 
Sr tact Natasa ata aera Ta areca ara 
ANG Professor D’Arcy W. ‘THompson 
Bx rejects all association with the Cetacea 
SX (Studies from the Museum of Zoology 
EN in University College, Dundee, Vol. 
aS I. N°. 9.) The length of the largest 
BN 
ZN skeletons measured seventy-five feet. 
EN The teeth and molars are nearly 
St exactly those of seals. The nostrils 
were situated at the tip of the 
nose, as in seals, most probably, 
however, they were directed upwards. 
The bones of the rather short fore- 
