[The 16th| THE VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS. 453 
“With regard to the “mane”. The great Phoca proboscidea is 
the only seal which will bear comparison with the Daedalus animal 
in question, reaching from twenty to thirty feet. H. M. officers 
declare that upwards of sixty feet of their animal were visible at 
the surface; but Mr. Owen supposes, not improbably, that the dis- 
turbance of the water produced by progression mduced an illusive 
appearance of a portion of this length. But how much? Suppose 
all behind thirty feet, the extreme length of the elephant seal. 
Then it is impossible the animal could have been such a seal, for 
the following reason. The fore paws of the seal are placed at about 
one-third of the total length from the muzzle; that is, in a seal 
of thirty feet long, at ten feet behind the muzzle. But twenty feet 
of the “serpent” were projected from the water, and yet no appear- 
ance of fins was seen. Lieutenant Drummond judges the head to 
have been ten feet in length (with which the lower figure, assum- 
ing sixty or sixty-five feet as the total length drawn; well agrees); 
and besides this, at least an equal length of neck was exposed.” 
“But the great Phoca proboscidea has no mane at all. For this, 
we must have recourse to other species, known as sea-lions. Two 
kinds are recognized under this name, O¢aria jubata and Platy- 
rhynchus leoninus; though there is some confusion in the names. 
Neither of these ever exceeds sixteen feet in total length, of which, 
about five feet would be the utmost that could project from the 
water in swimming. Suppose, however, the eyes of the gallant 
officers to have magnified the leonine seal to sufficient dimensions; 
I fear even then it will not do. For the mane in these animals 
is a lengthening and thickeniug of the hair on the occiput and on 
the neck, just as in the lion. But the “serpent’s’ mane was not 
there, but “perhaps twenty feet in the rear of the head” says 
Lieutenant Drummond; it “washed about its back’, says Captain 
M’Quhae.”’ 
“I do not hesitate to say, therefore, that on data we at present 
possess, the seal hypothesis appears to me quite untenable.” 
I think that the reader will easily see that Mr. Goss in dis- 
cussing the mammalian character of the sea-serpent, and we may 
add: especially of the sea-serpent seen by Captain M’QuHAX, was 
prepossessed with his idea of the sea-serpent beg an Hnaliosaurian. — 
Mr. Gossz points out that the vertical diameter of the head and 
neck are equal; but he does zo¢ fix the reader’s attention to the 
fact that if this were really the case, the estimation of the length 
of the head by Lieutenant Drummonp at “ten feet’? and that of 
