518 CONCLUSIONS. 
sea-serpent (97); “an immense shoal of porpoises rushed by the 
ship as if pursued” (124), and gracefully a long neck , moving like that 
of a swan rose from the depths. Our suppositions in this respect 
are confirmed by the reports of Captain S. West, who saw the 
sea-serpent “engaged with a whale’ (54), and of Captain Davison, 
stating that a sea-serpent seized a whale on the belly (read pectoral 
fin) (151, fig. 49). 
The manner of darting on its prey is well described in n°. 149 
and 152. I am convinced that the individuals in n°. 154 and 1064 
were diving for food in a playful manner, with their body and 
part of their tail floating on the surface. 
2. Breathing. Nobody will doubt that sea-serpents respire by 
gills as fish do; they move or swim, as is stated in numerous 
reports, with Hie head constantly above water, or when holding 
it nearly on the surface, it is evident that their nostrils are always 
just above the surface. When diving or fishing for food the average 
time that they remain under water is about eight minutes (63). 
It is probable that they may remain under it for half an hour or 
still longer. When having remained so long under water, and ap- 
pearing on the surface, the animal suddenly exhales with such a 
force that “we at first imagined it to be a whale spouting” (83), 
and “every time he put his head out of water, he made a noise 
sunilar to that of steam escaping from the boiler of a steamboat” 
(101). The same noise is usually heard when a whale “spouts” 
(See H. Lez, Sea Fables Haplained, 1883, London), see also fig. 
36. But also when the animal is swimming or lying still on the 
surface with its head on the level of the water, occasionally ex- 
haling when its nostrils are not quite above water, it “spouts water 
from it not unlike the blowing of a whale” (74); “near one extrem- 
ity we saw what looked like foam or froth as though it was 
spouting water’ (114). The breath of the animal is occasionally 
also seen condensed by the cold, forming little curling clouds, “it 
blew like a whale’, said Eexpz (5, fig. 19), “it squirted from its 
mouth a stream of foamy stuff, resembling long shavings from a 
pine plank” (158). In general, however, the animal swims with 
its head some feet above the surface of the water, so that it is 
very natural that “there was an entire absence of blowing or spout- 
ing” (148). 
3. Hzcretion. In one report we read that the animal left a greasy 
trail behind him (156). It is very probable that such a large sea- 
animal, provided as it is with rather a thick layer of bacon under 
