536 CONCLUSIONS. 
opportunity to support itself on a sand bank. T have found but — 
one case in which it is, however, stated that the bank had about four 
feet water upon it. “It lay dormant on the rocks, partly on the 
rocks, partly in the water,” resembling from afar a large log of 
wood. “It lay stretched out, partly over the white sandy beach, 
which had four or five feet water upon it, and lay partly over 
the channel’ (45). 
Till now it seems that no individual has ever been killed by 
the rifle balls of men. It is probable that the individual attacked 
by the sperm-whale (144) was finally killed by it, but it is also 
probable that it escaped. Yet I believe that sperm-whales may oc- 
casionally wound sea-serpents to death. 
Generally, however, I believe that these animals die a natural 
death. 
Dead sea-serpents are more likely to sink than to float, as the 
enormous neck and tail are most probably not provided with a 
comparatively thick layer of bacon, and are, therefore, too heavy 
for the comparatively small quantity of air in the animal’s lungs, 
and for the layer of bacon of the animal’s trunk. Yet it may oc- 
casionally occur that sea-serpents dying near some shore, may be 
stranded by the waves. Ponropripan reports that a dead sea-serpent 
stranded on the cliffs near Amond in Nordfjord and that its carrion 
caused a dreadful smell (6), and that another stranded near the 
isle of Karmen (7), and that the stranding of dead sea-serpents 
took place in more localities (7). Such carrions must be a dainty 
to all kinds of mews, which sometimes even follow living mdivid- 
uals (69). The fear of the Norwegians of sea-serpents, even of 
such carrions, is great enough to keep them at a considerable 
distance. It may be true “that some time ago a part of a skeleton 
of a sea-serpent was present in the Museum of Natural History at 
Bergen” (p. 374). It is possible that the fate of this part of a 
skeleton was the same as that of so many meteoric stones (see my 
Preface), or as that of the two eggs of Platypus or Ornithorhynchus, 
which reached the Manchester Museum in the year 1829, and 
remained there for some years, till they were condemned to the 
rubbish hill (Wature, 11 Dec. 1884, p. 133), and it was not before 
September 1884 that zoologists knew that Ornithorhynchus and 
Echidna axe really oviparous, and that the Manchester Museum 
was once in the possession of two eggs!! 
