CONCLUSIONS, 551 
Dimensions. At first sight it will be doubted if such an enormous 
animal can be a pinniped? It is so immensely large in comparison 
with the known species of 
this order! Suppose for a 
moment that whale-bone 
whales, spermwhales and fin- 
whales were not yet known, 
and that one of these animals 
was caught; what would | 
be our astonishment! Sup- : hr Hh 
pose that pythons and boas 3 WIG Wi Z 
were not yet discovered, — SS eS 
and somebody showed us Fig. 79. — Humetopias Stellera (Lesson) Peters. — 
a, skin of a python of 26 Sketched by the animal-painter G. Miirzen from a living 
~ ink specimen in the Zoological Gardens of Berlin. — 
feet long : I think that the From the Idlustrirte Zeitung of Jan., 27, 1877. 
first thought would be “you 
\2? 
are a handy fellow, but you will not cheat me with your story! 
I will add here some other striking comparisons. 
The largest known now 
living cons ota fishes 
are of 36 (Selache maz- 
ama) and of 42 feet (Car- 
charodon Rondeletir); but 
a fossil species of the 
latter genus reached a 
length of 81 feet (Car- ae jh 
charodon megalodon), and : 
earlier Northern truthful 
and accurate writers even Fig. 80.— Humetopias Stelleri (Lesson) PETERS. — 
mention 100 feet as Sketched by the animal-painter G. Miirzen from a living 
occasional dimension of specimen in the Zoological Gardens of Berlin. — From 
; the Ilustrirte Zeitung of Jan., 27, 1877. 
the Selache maxima, an 
animal eagerly pursued by the Norwegians for the oil of its liver, 
We, who in our latitudes look already with amazement on a 
salmon of 5 feet length, must be perplexed when seeing for the 
first time an osseous fish of 10 (hynnus thynnus), of 15 (Arapaima 
gigas), or of 20 feet (Regalecus Banksit). 
The largest known living Amphibium is 4 feet long (Crypto- 
branchus) , aud caused great astonishment, when it was discovered , 
but fossil Amphibia have been found larger than 15 feet (Mas- 
todonsaurus). 
