APPENDIX. 98] 
Hourn Head early next morning. After paying a visit to the Bar- 
rasdale oyster beds, we set sail for home in the afternoon, with 
a nice breeze on the quarter, but on reaching the mouth of the 
loch the wind died away again and we had to take to the sweeps. 
Just about the place where the animal was last seen, my attention 
was called by someone to a peculiar swirling of the water not far 
off, and I immediately noticed what was evidently the same creature 
swimming up to the yacht at a very rapid rate. When a short 
distance off it dived beneath the surface, quickly re-appearing off 
the starboard beam nearer than at any previous time, and going 
at such a great speed that I could distinctly hear the rushing 
sound of the breaking water. At this time there were no bumps 
to be seen, and I can only liken the appearance of our visitor to 
a log almost entirely submerged and dragged very rapidly through 
the sea, the water falling over each side of the head in a kind of 
cascade, while a series of broken waves formed immediately behind, 
gradually subsiding in the wake.” 
“It afterwards kept swimming about for a considerable time, 
and I had an opportunity of judging of its length so far as visible, 
compared with the hulls of two trading schooners of about 100 tons 
each some little distance from us. When apparently the same dis- 
tance away as the traders, and going slowly, it appeared fully as 
long from the head to the eighth bump as the length of one of 
the schooners on waterline, which would be at least sixty feet; 
but how much of the animal remained under water I had no 
means of estimating. The head seemed to be square or blunt, but 
I did not see under it, and did not notice its eye or mouth. The 
bumps, or dark raised portions, appeared to me to be about 
eighteen inches above the water, and three or four feet long, 
‘with a distance of four or six feet between each bump. I could 
not say whether the bumps were the convolutions of a snake-like 
body or the raised portions of a large body underneath the water. 
I am inclined to think the latter, as the bumps always kept the 
same distance apart, and appeared to be protuberances on the 
back of, possibly, a lizard shaped reptile. That it caused a large 
displacement was evident from the waves and commotion raised 
when swimming at or near the surface, as I could distinctly trace 
its progress with the naked eye at a distance of from two to three 
miles.” 
“We lost sight of the creature after leaving the mouth of Loch 
Hourn, but just as night fell I noticed it going past at a rapid 
