448 THE VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS. {The 15th. ] 
means in this instance, a land-snake which occasionally frequents 
the sea, as the Boa murina, | have placed this supposition here, and 
I have not considered it as identical to the fourth explanation. 
As a snake has no paddles or flappers, and is unable to undulate 
vertically, the sea-serpent cannot be such an animal. Moreover the 
boas are only inhabitants of tropical America and adjacent seas. 
The sixteenth explanation is given by Professor Ricoarp Owen, 
viz.: that the sea-serpent is a swimming large ‘seal. I refer my 
readers to his answer to a nobleman’s question, what Captain 
M’Quhae could have seen, inserted in our foregoing Chapter (n°. 
118). After having enumerated all the characters of the animal 
seen by captain M’Quaan, taken from the figures as well as from 
the descriptions, Professor Owrn comes to the conclusion: “All 
these are the characters of the head of a warm-blooded mammal..... 
Guided by the above interpretation, of the “mane of a horse, or 
a bunch of sea-weed’’, the animal was not a cetacean mammal, 
bat rather a great seal. But what seal of large size, or indeed of 
any size, would be encountered in latitude 24° 44’ south, and 
longitude 9° 22’ east?” Professor Owen further concludes: Phoca 
proboscidea or Phoca leonina. Very remarkable is the fact that a 
few lines before, the Professor said of the animal’s length: “This 
is the only part of the description, however, which seems to me 
to be so uncertain as to be madmissable, ex an attempt to arrive 
at a right conclusion as to the nature of the animal’. (The italics 
are mine). . 
In fig. 69 I show my readers the Macrorhinus leoninus, Linn, 
or sea-elephant, of which Phoca leonina, Linn&, and Phoca probos- 
cidea, Pfiron, are synonyms. The adult males have an elongated 
tubercular proboscis, the young ones and the females, one of which 
is seen in the background of my drawing, have the common 
features of seals. 
Mr. H. E. Srrickuanp and Mr. A. G. Mrtvi1e in the note added 
to their dissertation on the Dodo, in the Annals and Magazine of 
Natural History, 2d. series, Vol. II, p. 444, Nov. 15? 1848, say 
of Prof. Owen’s letter that it “gives a simple and clear explanation 
of the circumstances that have recently attracted attention, and 
briefly, but conclusively, discusses the question of existence of the 
Great, Sea-Serpent generally.” 
