Co 
CONCLUSIONS. 51. 
3. COLOURS, INDIVIDUAL VARIATIONS. 
Just as in some species of the order of Pinnipeds, there seem 
to exist indeed some individual variations with regard to the 
colour of the sea-serpent. 
Just as in the dark specimens of the Pinnipeds, the colour of 
the sea-serpent becomes lighter in drying; i.e. the real colour of 
the animal comes to light. Properly we should say: their colour is 
light, but, when wet, it becomes a dark one. It is evident that 
the real colour of the sea-serpent, being dried by the sunshine, 
is grey (9, 61, 64), a light ash-colour (25), grey and yellow (147), 
pale yellowish (146), or yellow (71). 
Just as in Pinnipeds, the colour of a wet individual appears 
much lighter when it is very close to us, than when we see 
it at some distance. Three times the colour is called grey (65, 66, 
p. 188), though not a single fact is mentioned, from which it may 
be made out, whether the animal was very near or far off. The 
colour of an individual which was so close that it could be struck 
with a handspike was greyish (72), that of one a few yards distant, 
light fawn coloured (122), at about thirty feet distance the colour 
seemed to be a very dark grey (102), still farther a greyish brown (79). 
Though some persons call the colour only dark, or brown, or 
black, it is noteworthy that those who describe it more minutely, 
agree that the backpart of the head, the neck, the trunk and the 
tail are dark, and that the under part of the head and the neck 
is light coloured. With regard to the colour, the animal is evidently 
longitudinally divided into a dark one above and a light one beneath. 
The dark colour of the upper part seems to vary a little, 
as may be seen from the following appellations: dark (41, 48, 51, 
63, 67, 80, 85, 103, 115, 131, 152 a, 154), very dark (42, 48), 
somewhat dark (95), dark dull (130), evidently a chocolate brown, 
or mahogany brown, or chestnut brown, for it was compared with 
a red snake (36), chocolate colour (44), dark chocolate colour (48), 
colour of a pilot fish (151), old mahogany brown (92), dirty brown 
(121), brown (43, 81, 92, 144), deep brown (34), dark brown 
(p. 131, 39, 44, 46, 56, 69, 97, 115, 117, 118, 185), blackish 
brown (91), approaching to black (63), nearly black (41, 95, 97) 
almost black (48), blackish (65, 94, 117), black (34, 42, 60, 85, 
P4120, 126, 138, 149,) 150, 152," 155), ‘as black as. coal-tar 
(152). The tints of the figures also evidently represent a dark 
colour (figg. 28, 29, 30, 41, 45, 46). By some witnesses the colour 
33 
