560 CONCLUSIONS. 
sea-serpents with Pinnipeds, to read Awuen’s often quoted work 
“History of North-American Pinnipeds”’, and.his “On Kared Seals’, 
(Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard College. Cambr. Mass. Vol. IL, 
n°. 1.), and Breum’s Therleben. 
There is one great difference between all the known Pinnipeds 
on one side, and sea-serpents on the other. The former are gregar- 
ious or social animals, only living in colonies or great herds, whilst 
Megophias megophias is a solitary being. This remarkable difference 
can be only accounted for by the two facts 1. That this species is 
a cosmopolitan, and 2. That these animals become extinct and that 
there exist at present only a very few individuals. 
I don’t know if I have convinced my readers of the existence 
of sea-serpents, and if so, if they are convinced that these animals 
are closely related to Pinnipeds. But I am obliged to proceed on 
my way, and consider the rank which sea-serpents occupy in the 
system of Nature. 
2. ITS RANK IN THE SYSTEM OF NATURE. 
Zoologists admit as a fact that Pinnipeds originate in true land- 
animals. We are convinced that these land-animals were long-tailed 
Viverrine animals. The tail must have been longer than one half 
of the total length. This is no impossibility, as we have still living 
forms, the tail of which is as long as half of the total length 
of the animal, e. g. Herpestes Widdringtonu. The dentition must 
have been the typical carnivorous one: 1 $, c +, m +; or there 
were more molars, perhaps %, as a genus of wild dogs, Otocyon, 
has 8 molars on each side of each jaw; its dentition is 1 3, ¢ 7, 
ma. (The, ynordea , or dog-like animals are also considered as 
having their origin in Viverrine animals.) 
Sone of the descendants of these long-tailed Viverrine animals 
had gradually got such characters, that rele would term them 
long-tailed Musteline animals. They may be called Jong-tailed 
ancestors of weasels and stoats, for our common weasel (Putorius 
vulgaris Li.) and our common stoat (Putorius ermineus L.) are still 
living descendants of them, though the tail has become very short, 
most probably because they have accustomed themselves to live 
in holes. The long tail has shown itself to be an inconvenient 
organ for this new manner of living, and therefore has gradually 
become shorter. 
Some of these /ong-tailed ancestors of weasels and stoats took 
